Setting Goals for a Happy, Healthy New Year

Meagan Voulo graduated from Farmingdale State College in the spring of 2015 with a BS in Applied 
Psychology.  She is currently enrolled 
in a PhD student at Stony Brook University in the Integrative 
Neuroscience program.  Meagan can be reached by email at meagvo@gmail.com or you can visit her personal blog, 

Recovering and Discovering, at 
www.recoveringanddiscovering.wordpress.com/

So many people set grandiose goals that seem achievable on January 1st, but by the end of February are long forgotten and abandoned.  In my opinion, as someone recovering from a mental illness, this process is demoralizing.  Wanting to change for the better is great, but the best way to bring about lasting changes is to set reasonable goals.  There’s actually an acronym for this in the business world – SMART; this stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.  For example, if you don’t typically exercise, your goal for the New Year shouldn’t be to exercise more or run 5 miles every day. The first is not specific and the second is not realistic.  Instead, try phrasing your goal like this: I will create an exercise plan for the New Year so that I can work my way up to running 3 miles for 5 days per week by the end of March.  This allows you to be more specific and realistic.  In addition, setting your deadline for the end of March allows you to have an end-point in sight, which will keep you motivated throughout the next 3 months. 
    Another common New Year’s resolution is be happier.  It seems like a great goal, right?  Well, it doesn’t meet the SMART criteria – it’s vague and nearly impossible to measure.  However, what really makes this a “bad” goal to set is the fact that you can’t actually make yourself happy just by setting a goal.  Typically, if you’re setting this goal, you’ve had a rough year and I’m not saying that it’s bad to think positively; it’s actually great to hope to be happier in the year to come.  But, what happens when unexpected troubles pop up throughout the year?  What if you go through a period of depression?  Does that mean you failed?  Absolutely not!  But, unfortunately, if you set a goal to be happier, you just may end up feeling even worse when rough patches come up again – and they will.
    So, how can we try to reframe this goal?  My advice is to set a few small resolutions that may eventually lead to being happier.  In my personal healing process, I’ve gone through a lot of hard times when I definitely was NOT happy, so I would like to share two of my SMART goals with you:

• Write down 3 positive things at the end of  
   each day in my journal.

• Allow at least 20 minutes each day to do 
   an activity that I enjoy (crocheting, roller 
   blading, reading, etc.)

    Both of these goals are specific, measureable, achievable, and realistic.  In addition, to ensure that they were time-bound, I made a calendar with weekly reminders to assess my progress.  Part of my self-assessment involved thinking about my feelings and mood; that way, I was also working towards my over-arching goal of being happier.  Finally, by tracking my progress, I was able to adjust my goals as needed.  
    I’m not going to promise you that working on SMART goals will be easy, because it’s not; it’s actually a lot harder than setting vague goals that are easily abandoned.  However, I will tell you that this process saved my life over the past year and I continue to set these goals periodically to continue my growth