How to Set and Achieve Your Mental Health Goals

It’s normal to feel intimidated by the process of setting goals.

According to The Mental Health Foundation, 1 in 6 adults worldwide experience common mental health disorders, and it’s a problem that stops us from achieving happiness in life.

As someone who has experienced this, I understand how frustrating it can be to not be living the life you love.

Luckily, by setting mental health goals, you will be able to focus on improving your mental health and move further towards more balance and positive feelings in your day.

So, I will share with you my step-by-step process on how to set goals and stick with them.

How to set and achieve your mental health goals plus mental health practices you can use to boost happiness. #mentalhealth #mentalhealthmatters Click To Tweet

How to Set and Achieve Your Mental Health Goals

‘Mental health isn’t a battle to be won. It is a journey to continue walking.’

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1. Evaluate Your Mental Health

In order to start setting your mental health goals, you need to first evaluate your overall mental health. This will help you know what you need to focus on throughout the year.

Ask yourself these questions:

Am I spending too much time worrying?
Throughout the week, am I easily overwhelmed when completing my daily tasks?
Am I neglecting my self care routine?
Are my negative thoughts stopping me from moving forward? And why?

By asking yourself these questions, you will be able to consider which areas of your life are affecting your mental health, making it easier for you to set your mental health goals.

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2. Visualisation

In order to start setting your goals, you need to visualize how you wish your life to be once you have accomplished your goals.

This will help you to have an idea of the direction you wish to go down once taking action on your goals.

I suggest creating a vision board and a mind map.

A vision board is a great tool to use before you set your goals. Vision boards become a source of inspiration, as well as a motivator when you see the board every day.

A great way to create a vision board is gathering inspiration from Pinterest.

All you need to do is type in ideas of the goals you wish to accomplish this year, and save the pins into your private vision board.

An example could be prioritizing your self-care or setting dedicated time to read your favourite book.

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If you would like to create a mind map, all you will need is a piece of plain paper and a pen.

Then, you will need to write all of the mental health goal ideas you think you can accomplish this year.

By doing this, it will help you move onto the next step below…

3. Set SMART Mental Health Goals

Setting SMART goals will help you set your mental health goals easily.

Here is a simplified criterion of SMART goals:

Specific – a simple goal that can be easily understood.
Measurable – a goal you can easily keep track of your progress.
Achievable – a goal that can be obtained easily within a time frame.
Relevant – a goal that relates to the area of your mental health you want to improve.
Time-Bound – a goal that has a deadline.

Examples of mental health goals for you to gather inspiration from:

Limiting your social media usage to twice a week.
Reading every day for 15 minutes.
Journaling once a week.
Exercising for 30 minutes twice a week.
Drinking 8 glasses of water every day.

Steps To Set Your Own Mental Health Goals:

Want to improve your overall mental health? Here are some steps you can take to set and achieve your mental health goals... #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness Click To Tweet

Step 1: Write Your Goal Down

A great technique that I use to write my goals, is to write them as if you have achieved them already.

By doing this, it will program your mind into thinking you have achieved it already, allowing yourself to move further towards achieving the goals.

I find writing this way stops me from focusing on the outcome which leads me to become unmotivated to take the steps towards achieving my goals.

Here’s an example for you to follow: ‘I am a positive thinker who performs gratitude every day.’

By simply writing in this format, it will make a massive difference to your process of achieving your goals.

Step 2: Establish Your WHY

Finding your reason behind each goal will become your main motivator.

In the book ‘Make it Happen’ by Jordanna Levin, she says that attaching an emotion and feeling behind your goals increases your chances of achieving them.

Your emotions and feelings are your main motivator for you wanting to achieve your goals since you want to eliminate the negative feelings that are holding you back.

Therefore, when you set your mental health goals, you must attach a feeling and an emotion to these goals, as it will motivate you more to achieve them.

Step 3: Break Your Goal Down

Are you someone who wants to jump into the deep end?

I would suggest breaking your mental health goals into actionable steps.

Breaking down your goals into actionable steps will help you avoid overwhelming feelings, resulting in you seeing that they are achievable goals.

Step 4: Set Deadlines

After you have broken down your goals, you will need to give yourself deadlines for achieving each actionable step.

Always allow yourself time for each of your goals. That’s why I would suggest completing one big goal for each quarter of the year.

This will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed.

A few great tools to use are Asana and Google Calendar. Using these tools will allow you to set your goals and write deadlines to achieve each actionable step.

Step 5: Track Your Progress

It’s important to track your progress when setting goals.

By taking the time to check your progress, you will be able to see if there are any goals that need to be altered, keeping you on the path towards achieving your mental health goals.

This can be at the end of every week or at the end of each month; whatever works best for you.

How to Stick to Your Mental Health Goals

It’s normal to feel unmotivated to stick to your goals, especially during times when you are stressed and feeling in a low mood.

However, below are some examples of goals that will help you overcome your unmotivated stage and move further towards achieving your mental health goals…

Affirmations

You’ve probably heard of the usefulness of affirmations from other bloggers and YouTubers.

But, to give you a quick summary, affirmations are positive statements that are repeated to yourself every day.

As I had mentioned previously, your mind can be easily tricked, so when you repeat affirmations, your mind will begin to think they are true. As a result, this will motivate you to achieve your goals.

An example of two affirmations is ‘I am worthy of success,’ and ‘I am a confident person who can walk outside alone.’

You will see a massive difference in your mindset which will help you achieve your mental health goals.

Reward Yourself

As I had mentioned before, it’s normal to feel unmotivated when completing your goals. That’s why I would suggest giving yourself a reward for each actionable step you achieve.

Examples of great rewards include:

Playing your favourite game
Going out to meet friends or family
Having a delicious dessert.

Next to your actionable steps, write down your rewards and you will see a difference in your motivation to achieve them.

Tell Someone

A great way to stick to your mental health goals is by telling someone about them.

This will motivate you to stick to them because you don’t want to let that person down.

The person you tell should be someone who you can trust to be your cheerleader and hold you accountable. This person will give you reassurance when you feel unmotivated and stressed.

Practise Gratitude

Gratitude is a powerful tool you can use to stick to your mental health goals.

It allows you to appreciate your progress at the moment, without feeling defeated if you don’t meet your own expectations.

It involves writing the things you are most grateful for on that day. This can be done unintentionally, such as reassuring yourself at work, and intentionally such as writing your list in your journal.

You can perform gratitude as many times as you would like – every day or at the end of every week.

An example of your gratitude may be that you were able to read for 10 minutes today.

I find that performing gratitude unintentionally every day helps to relieve the negative thoughts… And it will make a massive difference in your progress towards achieving your mental health goals.

Tip: Another great way to improve your mental health is mood journaling. This means you’ll track your mood and activities daily. By tracking your moods and activities you’ll soon be amazed at how your habits will change and you’ll find new ways to feel good and look after yourself.

Check out my Mood Tracker Journal now available on Amazon!

Today I Choose Joy: Mood Tracker

How to Set and Achieve Your Mental Health Goals: Conclusion

By setting mental health goals that you can easily achieve, it will help you move further towards the life that you love. And it’s never too late to set your mental health goals.

If you feel that you’re unable to set and achieve your mental health goals, then I would encourage you to speak to a doctor or a therapist. By talking to either or both, they will help and guide you in setting and achieving your mental health goals.

If you could set one mental health goal for yourself today – what would it be?

Share in the comments below…

Kyra Thompson

About Kyra:

Kyra is a lifestyle blogger who shares tips on manifestation and personal growth to help millennials manifest their dream life. By day she’s a student working hard to get her degree, and by night she’s a lifestyle blogger working on her blog, The Millennial Mindset.

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6 Comments

Olivia says:

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Daily gratitude and journaling are my favorite mental health practices! Thanks for sharing this list of mental health goals!

Brie LaPrell says:

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When setting your goals, it is SO important to understand WHY you are doing that goal and continuously remind yourself this to motivate yourself to push forward! Love that you included that in your steps. We are all looking to improve our mental health in some way. What an amazing post 🙂 Definitely sharing!!

Lois says:

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Kyra, that is an excellent list. Never thought about the vision board, or the google calendar to keep me moving toward a goal. I will take your suggestions to heart.

Samantha says:

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Great article! Making a vision board has been absolutely key to reaching my goals, seeing the pictures reignites the fire!

1. yridley says:
  
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  Thanks Samantha! I love vision boards. They really help you focus and see what the future can have in store 🙂
  
2. Kyra says:
  
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  Thanks 😊 Definitely make a vision board. It’s funny how something so simple can have a massive impact on your life.

How to Set and Achieve Your Mental Health Goals