Goal Setting Ideas

goals for better mental health

If you’re feeling stuck in a rut it’s time to set some serious goals.

This blog that you’re reading is the result of a New Years Resolution I made one year.

Goals have completely transformed my life. They’ve helped me get in shape, start my own business and educate myself on tons of different topics.

It’s so easy to feel bored or stuck in your life and I really believe that having goals helps you stay excited about the future.

When you don’t set goals for your future you’re just leaving everything up to chance.

Who knows if you’ll ever get to do the things you want to do in your lifetime.

 

Goal Setting Tips

  • Write your goals down
  • Put them somewhere you will see them
  • Know exactly what you want to achieve
  • Know why you want to achieve it
  • Break your goals into quarterly (3 month) goals
  • Get excited about your goals
  • Create a vision board of what you want your life to look like

Reading Challenge

This year I’ve been attempting to do the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.

I’ll admit, I ‘ve already failed to do this a few times and it’s only February but I’m still really liking this challenge!

I am reading way more books than I did last year and having a goal for how many books I want to read helps keep me from wasting time.

Instead of sitting around watching TV or scrolling on my phone I pick up a book instead and that’s been a great habit to build.

If you don’t want to try to do a book a week try doing a book a month instead.

Set a realistic but challenging reading goal for the year. If you’re looking for an affordable way to access ebooks and audiobooks I use and recommend Scribd (it’s basically Netflix but for books!). You can try it free for 30 days here.

Daily Journaling

If you want to improve your mental health I can’t recommend a journaling practice highly enough.

It seems so simple but taking time to write out my thoughts in the morning and at night has really improved my overall wellbeing.

I use the morning pages practice which is a form of free writing.

Dumping all my thoughts out on the page helps keep me from feeling overwhelmed and it’s also made me more self-aware.

Journaling helps me bring my feelings to the surface and process them in a healthy way instead of ignoring them or hoping they will just go away.

I get emails from people all the time that want to improve their mental health but can’t afford therapy and I always recommend that they start journaling.

If you’re looking for some great mental health journal prompts go check out my post here.

 

Fitness

Focusing on my physical fitness has been one of the most transformative things I’ve ever done for my life.

When I’m not on a regular exercise program my depression and anxiety quickly take over and before I know it I feel like total crap.

I have big dreams and goals I want to chase down and the reality is that if I don’t stick to my exercise routine I’m just not able to stay motivated and productive enough to make real progress towards my goals.

If you’re looking for an affordable home workout program I have a fitness accountability group that you can apply to join here.

The group requires that you purchase the supplies for the program but the accountability group is free. I’ve found that being part of a group really helps me stay on track with my home workouts and I’d love to have you join the group.

I don’t like to focus on weight loss so my fitness goals are always something like “complete a 40-minute workout 4 days per week” or “be able to do a certain number of push-ups”.

I find that focusing on the number of workouts I do instead of the number on the scale helps me feel better about my body and makes living a healthy lifestyle more sustainable.

Before I focused on fitness related goals I would try to hit a certain weight and end up doing a crash diet which was really unhealthy and unsustainable.

Focusing on fitness has helped me be more consistent with my physical fitness and

Eliminate a Bad Habit

What habits do you have that are holding you back?

Try to identify what you could give up that would be a complete game changer for your life.

In the past, I’ve given up things like sugar, alcohol and complaining and it gave me amazing positive results in my life.

Some people find it easier to break old habits than to build new ones and giving up bad habits can have amazing results in your life.

Make New Friends

Let’s be real, meeting new people can be a total pain in the butt.

I’m actually not that great at making new friends but I think it’s important to get out of your usual social circle and meet new people.

I have a lot of specific interests (blogging, personal development, etc) and I’ve been able to find a lot of supportive Facebook groups to join online.

Making friends online has been really fun for me and I’ve been able to meet a bunch of my internet friends at different conferences and events over the last year.

It’s been really fun to get to know people I would have never met in my day to day life and having friends that inspire me has really helped me

Plan a Trip

Traveling is one of my favorite things to do for my mental health.

It’s also a great goal to set because usually traveling requires quite a bit of planning and saving to make it happen.

To me, there’s no better feeling than walking around in a city after planning and visualizing the trip for a long time.

Getting out of my usual routine and culture keeps my mind fresh and inspires me to be more creative.

It’s so easy to get stuck in the rut of our day to day life and traveling to a new place is a great way to get out of that routine.

Ask yourself these questions and then start planning your trip:

  • If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?
  • What would your dream vacation be like?
  • What places do you want to see before you die?

Get a Mentor

I’m a huge fan of hiring life coaches and joining mastermind groups.

I’ve spent a lot of money investing in my personal development and it is the best money I’ve ever spent.

However, if you can’t afford to hire someone you can still learn a ton from the people you look up to.

Find someone you really look up to and make it your mission to consume all of their content.

Read their books, listen to their interviews and subscribe to their podcast.

I’ve learned a ton this way and it’s a really affordable option if you want a mentor but aren’t ready to spend the cash yet.

Most people in the personal development space have lots of free content available online. A lot of them even post every day on Instagram so you can get daily inspiration from them!

Daily Gratitude

A daily gratitude practice is a great goal to have for yourself!

Every morning I make a list of 50 things I am thankful for while I’m drinking my coffee.

Having to write 50 things makes me think of small things that I usually overlook (things like my eyelashes or the weather).

I believe that practicing daily gratitude has been one of the biggest reasons I’ve been able to shift my mindset from negative to positive.

Writing a gratitude list is a great way to start the day and it helps me get going on the right foot.

I’m not a morning person so before I started this practice I was literally dragging myself through the morning and I was very thoughtless about how I started the day.

Create a Budget

For years my finances gave me severe anxiety.

The idea of creating a budget seemed really complicated and overwhelming so I kept putting it off.

Once I created my budget I felt SO MUCH BETTER and my anxiety around money was finally relieved.

I wish I would have started budgeting my money way sooner.

Financial goals are always a good thing to be working towards.

You could set a goal to save a certain amount of money or pay off your debt.

Get Organized

If you’re like me there are probably plenty of areas of your life where you could be more organized.

I find it best to pick one area of my life to organize at a time.

Decluttering and cleaning out my house always helps my mental health and makes me feel ready for a fresh start.

You could also set a goal to start keeping a planner. I use a Happy Planner and it has helped me feel organized and I love that it is completely customizable.

If you’ve never heard of the Happy Planner they have tons of accessories you can get so you can really make it perfect for whatever you need to keep track of. I have a section for my goals, notes, budget, weekly layout and monthly calendar in mine.

There are always ways to be more organized so I think setting a goal around being more organized is a great idea.

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Goal ideas | productivity | mental health | depression tips | anxiety | depression recovery | anxiety tips

 

 

 

 

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