Your Supports
“You have to rely on your support system. Growing up, I always thought it was a sign of weakness to ask for help, but now I realize it’s really a sign of strength to say, ‘I need help, I can’t do it all.’”
– Kerri Walsh Jennings
Identifying Supports
It’s important to identify the support system you have in your life before setting your social support goal.
To review the previous session, social supports are people or services who support you in different ways. This could mean supporting you physically, spiritually, emotionally, or mentally. Formal supports are typically provided by community agencies or other organizations. Informal supports come from outside of formal settings. Informal supports may be more familiar with your social needs because they know you on a more social level.
Identifying your social supports allows you to see how much support you have in different areas of your life. Finding where you could use more support will help you set your social support goal. Knowing who in your support system can offer help can also give you confidence and motivation to work towards your goal.
Setting a Support Goal
Now that you have a greater understanding of what formal and informal supports can include and have written down a list of your social supports, you are ready to consider a social support goal. In this session, you will think about a social support goal you would like to set. You will also write a social support goal statement.
As a starting place, look at the social supports you identified in your social supports list. Are there areas on your list where you can use additional support? If there are clear areas where you need additional support, you might choose one as a starting place for writing your goal statement.
Social supports can help us address our emotional, mental, and physical health. Do the supports you identified capture all areas of your health? If your list feels full already, you might identify an area where you would like more support, even if you already have some.
One important consideration for writing a social support goal is that your goal should be reachable but take some time and effort to achieve. Setting a reachable goal will inspire you to work hard and celebrate each successful step.
