As we head into a new year, many people are setting resolutions for how they want to improve their lives in 2026. One way to see big improvements is to focus on your mental health, which can have a huge impact on other areas of your life. At Carolina Dunes Behavioral Health, in Leland, North Carolina, we have seen how focusing on mental health can be life-changing and even life-saving for our patients.
Being SMART About Resolutions
You’ve probably noticed that many people don’t accomplish their New Year’s resolutions. One way you can make it easier to achieve any goal that you set is to follow the SMART acronym:
- Specific – The goal needs to be really clear. Think about the steps you will need to take to ensure the goal occurs, who else might be involved, ways you will reward yourself, and how you will manage days when you aren’t feeling motivated.
- Measurable – This relates to how you will know that the goal has been reached. Just saying you will do more or less of something is unclear. How often will you be doing something? How much time will you spend each day or each week?
- Attainable – Make sure that whatever you are trying to accomplish is realistic. When you know there is no possible way to accomplish the goal before you, it is difficult to make even a little progress.
- Relevant – If it’s not truly important to you, it’s harder to make the changes necessary to accomplish the steps you must take to accomplish the stated outcome.
- Time Limited – Most people need deadlines. When do you want to reach the ultimate goal, you set? What about intermediary goals that you can set along the way?
Resolutions Related to Mental Health
If you’re realizing that your mental health isn’t where you want it to be, a great place to start is with therapy and/or medication:
- Specific – “I will contact my insurance company on Monday, January 5th, to find an in-network therapist/psychiatrist in my area. I will research providers during the rest of the week and make calls to schedule consultation appointments by Monday, January 12th. I will select a provider to work with from those consultations and will have my first routine appointment scheduled by February 1. I will tell (support person’s name) about this plan today and ask them to check in with me at each of those dates, to provide some accountability. I will reward myself for accomplishing each step by setting a coffee date with my support person. I will choose a provider who offers telehealth sessions, so that inclement weather and low motivation levels won’t result in missed appointments.”
- Measurable – “I will know that I am accomplishing my goal by the fact that I have completed the steps listed above and also that I am attending the appointments as recommended by the provider.” (weekly, monthly, etc.)
- Attainable – If the dates listed above aren’t realistic for you, you can adjust them according to what would work for you. You may also need to have your support person call with you if you’re someone who gets anxious while making calls.
- Relevant – Think about why this goal is important to you and how what you’re doing will get you whatever it is that you want.
- Time Limited – The dates that you set above are part of this, but there may also be other parts of the goals that will have set dates.
If therapy and medications aren’t areas where you feel you need goals right now, there are plenty of other areas where you can set goals to improve your mental health. You can use the example above to develop the broader idea into a SMART goal that fits your needs:
- Being more active – 30 minutes per day of physical activity has been shown to boost mood. If you cannot handle 30 minutes all at once (yet), you can break it up into smaller increments that add up to 30 minutes over the course of the day.
- Nutrition – Eating more fresh produce, drinking plenty of water, staying away from foods high in sugar, and reducing alcohol and caffeine intake are all linked to improved mental and physical health. You don’t have to do all of these things at once. You can make one or two small changes at a time.
- Sleep – Having a consistent sleep schedule, turning off screens an hour or two before bedtime, and implementing routines to help your mind wind down at the end of the day are some of the ways you can improve the quality and quantity of sleep you are getting, which can have a huge impact on mental health.
- Connection – Spending time with your family and friends, attending support groups, getting involved in your faith community, and volunteering are a few different ways to increase your connection to other people and build a stronger support system.
- Stress management – Learning to let go of things that don’t matter and prioritizing the important things can make life less stressful. Practice setting boundaries and saying “no” when people ask you to do things you don’t have the time to do.
- Coping skills – Grounding exercises, meditation, journaling, and practicing gratitude are a few different ways you can get through tough times. When they become habits, then you will reach for them without even thinking about it, whenever you’re struggling.
At Carolina Dunes Behavioral Health, we help our patients develop goals that help them in the moment and in their future mental health recovery. Our structured therapeutic environment is a great starting point for the process of regaining quality of life, so that they can ultimately return to their communities, families, and regular life.
