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Letting go of hard-to-attain goals improves quality of life: study

All you chronic goal-setters out there will be the first to admit that nothing is more disappointing and ego-bruising than realizing you're not going to achieve one of your goals -- whether it's due to a sprained ankle before a big race or not getting into the school of your dreams. But according to a new collaborative study out of Concordia and McGill universities, hanging onto unattainable goals could be affecting your well being.

Based on a mutual desire to motivate breast cancer survivors to become more active, Carsten Wrosch, psychology professor from Concordia University, and Catherine Sabiston from McGill's Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, conducted a study to examine why so many survivors become overweight and why they're generally more sedentary than other women.

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The study involved 176 breast cancer survivors aged 28 to 79, who were almost a year past their diagnosis and approximately three months post-treatment, reports the Huffington Post. At the beginning of the study, participants were asked to describe their physical activity levels, their physical and emotional well-being and their ability to adjust goals. After three months, they answered the same questions again.

The researchers found that the ability to reassess goals was directly associated with increased physical activity and emotional well-being, and less physical symptoms such as nausea and pain.

"By engaging in new goals, a person can reduce the distress that arises from the desire to attain the unattainable, while continuing to derive a sense of purpose in life by finding other pursuits of value," says Wrosch. "Abandoning old goals allows someone to invest sufficient time and energy in effectively addressing their new realities."

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And according to Wrosch, this realization could alter the way doctors treat breast cancer survivors.

"Given that it is possible to influence adjustment to specific goals, it may be beneficial to integrate goal adjustment processes into clinical practice," he says.

These findings aren't only applicable to cancer survivors, however, as similar conclusions have been proven relevant in more general terms. The Huffington Post, for example, reports that letting go of feelings of regret is also beneficial to our mental health. According to LiveScience, as we age, it becomes increasingly important to our emotional well-being to let go of regret.

"It seems to be essential for our emotional well-being to adapt to changing life-demands when we are older — that is, to not look back in anger and to focus on the positive," says researcher Stefanie Brassen, a neuroscientist at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, to LiveScience.

Easier said than done, though, isn't it?

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