In our last blog post, we discussed how New Year’s Resolutions can sometimes be harmful to people’s mental health. In this post, we want to highlight how to go about setting healthy resolutions for 2025 that are achievable and are less likely to make you feel down about yourself come the end of the year.
Set SMART Goals
Instead of setting resolutions, maybe change course and consider setting goals instead. Resolutions are often vague and have no real, measurable definition. Goals, on the other hand, are often measurable and it’s much clearer when you’ve reached a goal or not. SMART goals are especially helpful when approaching this concept.
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
Specific tackles the vagueness problem with resolutions. Instead of thinking “I want to be healthier”, think about what healthy really means to you. Is it physical health? Mental health? Both? And then what does it mean to have good, or better than your current, physical or mental health.
Measurable goes hand-in-hand with specific. If you want to eat healthier, does that mean eating a certain amount of fruits and vegetables per day? Or what about meditating a certain amount of times per week, for mental health benefits? Having a number attached to this goal helps you know if you’ve succeeded in doing it. It’s easy to say “I’m going to meditate more this year”. But how do you really know if you’ve done it more than last year unless you track it and have a number attached to it?
Achievable means these goals have to be realistic and attainable. The goal needs to be something you, at this present moment, can do. These are not goals that your ideal self would accomplish. They are goals YOU can accomplish.
Relevant goals are goals that make sense for you and your life. They have clear results and work within your current resources. Again, these are goals that are meant for the present you and not an ideal you.
Time-bound means they have a deadline or are time-sensitive in some way. They can’t just be open-ended because that will take some of the urgency out of your achieving these goals. For most New Year related goals, people will set the deadline at the end of the year. Does this sound too far away? Then set yourself 6 month goals, 2 month goals, 2 week goals. Whatever you feel is a reasonable amount of time that will keep you motivated is the right deadline to set.
Mental Health Related Goals
Mental health has been a hot topic in recent years, and for good reason. More and more people are realizing the intricate connection between mental health and physical health and how these two come together for someone’s longevity and happiness. Setting goals around bettering or maintaining your mental health can be a great way to approach a new year!
Some mental health related goals you could consider working towards include: starting therapy, starting medication, meditating x-times per week, going for a walk x-times per week, making sure to connect with friends at least once a week, setting 5 minutes aside every day for some quick but effective self-care, not drinking coffee or other caffeinated beverages after 3pm (for better sleep!), journaling every day.
You don’t have to put all (or any!) of these on your list. But consider implementing some smaller goals (like the self-care one) and working your way up from there if it seems like working on your mental health feels intimidating.
What if it’s Too Late?
It’s never too late to start! You don’t need to set them on the 31st of December or in the first week of January. If you feel motivated and called to set new goals in June, then that’s the perfect time to start working towards them. As a society, we put a lot of cultural importance on the idea of starting new things on the first of the year or on a Monday. But there’s nothing special about any particular day of the year that will make your goals easier to achieve. The best time to start is when you’re ready to start.
Resources:
https://www.choosingtherapy.com/new-years-resolutions
https://www.columbiapsychiatry.org/news/are-your-new-years-resolutions-faltering
https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/why-not-to-make-a-new-years-resolution
https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/2020/01/realistic-new-years-resolutions-for-your-mental-health/
https://www.nami.org/people/mental-health-resolutions-for-the-new-year/
https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/americans-top-5-new-years-resolutions