15 Mental Health Goals For A Happy And Fulfilling Life

Set mental health goals before the year ends and start living your best life yet!

In Today’s day and age, where most of us are guilty of living a fast-paced lifestyle, there’s no doubt that our mental health can easily be taken for granted.

I’m definitely guilty of this. I’ve never really realized how crucial our mental health is until I found myself at the lowest point of my life.

Before hitting my rock bottom, I was constantly pushing myself to exhaustion and burnout. I would constantly overextend myself thinking that my worth and value were tied to other people’s approval and validation.

I was drained and I was so unhappy. But instead of facing my emotions and feelings and accepting how I really felt, I bottled it up and I kept pretending to myself and to others that I was perfectly happy and okay.

I didn’t really realize how much of a toll it took on my mental and emotional health, until the day I found myself at my lowest. I knew that if I wanted to pick myself back up and reset my life, I had to start making my mental health a priority.

And that’s why I started setting mental health goals. Setting mental health goals made it easier for me to focus on certain areas of my life that I needed to change for me to heal, grow and move forward with my life happier.

If you feel like you’ve been taking your mental health for granted for far too long, this is a great place to start. In this post, I will be sharing with you my very own mental health goals and the steps I took to reach these goals.

I’m hoping that these will inspire you and help you set your own mental health goals!

Why Are Mental Health Goals Important?

Setting mental health goals for me was a real game changer. It gave me the perfect opportunity to reflect on my mental state, happiness and emotional health.

It gave me a clearer direction on what I wanted to achieve, the steps I need to take and the habits I needed to let go of to help me achieve these goals.

When I was at my lowest, almost everything in my life was falling apart. There were days when everything just felt so overwhelming and daunting that even getting out of bed was a struggle. I lost all motivation and quite frankly, I felt really hopeless.

Setting mental health goals gave me a sense of hope and control. It reminded me that I had the power to change my life and turn it around. It helped fuel my determination to get up every day and take action.

How To Set Mental Health Goals Effectively?

In order for us to achieve our mental health goals we have to learn to set them effectively. Sometimes, it’s so much easier to just set goals right away without really reflecting on them and thinking about the steps that we need to take to achieve them.

We dive right into it and just push and pressure ourselves to meet those goals right away without realizing that doing that just completely defeats the purpose. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made this mistake.

I will share with you the steps I took that have made achieving my mental health goals easier and a little less daunting. These steps made it easier for me to stick with it and motivated me to keep going.

Reflect

Before setting mental health goals, allowing yourself to sit and reflect on your needs is crucial.

I know sometimes we think that it’s so much easier to just keep pretending like nothing is wrong, instead of actually facing how we really feel but if we keep running away, we will only be stuck unhappy and unable to move forward.

We have to have the courage to ask ourselves the hard questions, reflect on our current mental state and be honest about what areas we need to improve on.

Identify The Actions That You Need To Take

For you to move forward and start achieving your mental health goals, you must first identify what steps you need to take to achieve those goals.

Remember to be very specific with each step. Don’t be afraid to break down big tasks into smaller ones.

Take It One At A Time

Now, this is probably one of the most important things you can do to help you achieve your mental health goals.

You are going through a big change in your life by taking this journey and it’s so easy to be overwhelmed with everything that you have to do, and all the changes that you have made.

That’s why it’s so important to remember that there is nothing wrong with taking it one step at a time. Focus on one or two tasks and if you feel like you can take on more then you can add to it.

Just remember that you don’t always have to make big changes and take huge leaps. Sometimes what matters is the small steps that you choose to take even on those dark days.

Be Realistic

It’s important when setting your mental health goals to be realistic about the timelines of achieving your goals. Make sure to identify what challenges or obstacles you may face while achieving this goal.

And along the way, if you feel like the current timeline that you have set for a specific goal is not enough, don’t be afraid to adjust it. Doing that is not going to make you a failure.

On the contrary, recognizing your shortcomings and learning to be flexible and adapt is growth and personal improvement. So, you are definitely a step in the right direction.

15 Mental Health Goals Examples

1. Meditate

I have always been a skeptic when it comes to the benefits of meditation. I had always assumed that sitting still with a million different anxious thoughts with me was probably one of the worst things that I can do.

I have always believed that meditation was about emptying your mind which I know was never possible for me. But I was wrong.

Meditation is not about emptying your mind. It is about learning to sit with your thoughts, allowing them to come without letting yourself be swept away by them.

Meditating has been tremendously helpful in improving my mental health. There’s no denying that when I started doing it, I found it challenging and difficult to just sit there for a period of time but the more that you do it, the easier that it gets.

The key is to be consistent and to do it every single day. Try doing it for 15-20 minutes for the next 30 days and you’ll definitely be surprised by the positive changes in your mood and mental health.

2. Don’t Be Afraid To Feel

How many times have you chosen to bottle up all your emotions and just keep pretending to be okay?

I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times I have chosen to do that. I have always been guilty of choosing to run away from what I feel and just keep living in my very own bubble of denial pretending that I’m perfectly happy.

At that moment, I thought that running away from what I was truly feeling and going through was the best thing that I can do. But it was the complete opposite, I didn’t realize how negatively it had impacted my mental health and true happiness.

Keeping our emotions bottled up won’t make them go away. By choosing not to feel I was actually keeping myself stuck and unable to move forward.

Being vulnerable will never be a sign of weakness and failure. I actually believe that it’s the exact opposite. Choosing to feel all our emotions take great courage and strength.

Letting ourselves feel is possibly the best thing that we can do to finally heal and let go of that pain and burden that we have been carrying with us for so long.

3. Let Go Of Toxic Habits

Letting go of bad habits is crucial in helping improve our mental health that’s why it’s so important for it to be part of our mental health goals.

Take this opportunity as the perfect time to reevaluate the habits, mindsets, and even relationships that are only weighing you down and sabotaging your happiness and well-being.

During this process, it was hard for me to admit to myself how much negativity and toxic habits I’ve allowed myself to hold on to just because they feel comfortable.

For every toxic habit, mindset, and relationship, I always had a justifiable reason why I still need to hold on to it but the reality is, I actually really don’t.

I was just so afraid of making the change that I’d rather stay unhappy because they feel familiar. But the thing is we can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results.

We can’t keep choosing to hold on to so much negativity and expect to wake up happier.

If you want to improve your mental health and change your life for the better, you have to let go of what no longer serves you. It’s important to be perfectly honest with yourself during this process and don’t beat yourself up.

Give yourself grace and compassion and congratulate yourself for taking the necessary steps needed to achieve your mental health goals.

4. Don’t Be Afraid To Reach Out

Do you also find it so difficult to reach out to other people and ask for help and support? I certainly do.

When I was going through the lowest point of my life, I was so overwhelmed with the stress and the constant problems that I had to face, and yet I refused to let anybody know what I was going through.

I kept pretending that I was fine and that everything was okay because I was so afraid of being a burden to other people.

I felt so isolated and alone and it just made me feel so much worse. If you feel the same way too, I want you to know that you will never be a burden to the people who truly love you.

The people who really care for you will be there to listen to you and support you. They may not always exactly understand what you are going through but they will be there to listen, to bring you comfort, and to hold your hand while you go through the storms of life.

Asking for help is not a sign of weakness either. Sometimes there are just things in life that are too big for us to carry alone and that’s perfectly okay.

5. Make Self Care A Priority

Making self care a priority is definitely one of the best mental health goals you can make.

How many times have you chosen to put your needs on the back burner thinking that they are really not important?

I get it. When there are so many things going on in our lives, taking care of ourselves is probably the last thing on our minds. Well, to be perfectly honest, sometimes it doesn’t even make our to-do list.

Most of us are guilty of constantly taking ourselves for granted and always saying yes to other people thinking that our needs don’t matter.

But it does. You matter. There is certainly nothing wrong in making yourself a priority if it means protecting your peace, mental health and happiness.

Taking some time for ourselves is not selfish. For so long, I believed that it was too. But I’ve learned that it is actually a necessity.

We have to take care of ourselves and listen to our bodies if we want to be fully present and keep taking care of the people that we love.

Remember that self care is not always about spending so much money and all those grand things. It can sometimes be as simple as allowing ourselves the time to finish the book that we have been wanting to read for the longest time.

6. Practice Gratitude

I know that when everything around you is falling apart, finding something to be grateful for may seem impossible.

When I hit rock bottom, practicing gratitude was definitely the last thing on my mind. When you have to face so much stress, problems, and burden, it’s not always easy to be grateful for something.

This is what I felt. I let negativity take control and every time I woke up, I only allowed myself to focus on the bad things and all the challenges that I was going through. Doing that didn’t help me in any way.

It just made everything worse. It made me bitter and angry at the world and it just made me feel more hopeless.

I’ve learned that practicing gratitude doesn’t mean that you are invalidating the struggles that you are going through or minimizing the pain and heartbreak that you are feeling.

I believe that being grateful is acknowledging that though everything is falling apart, there is still hope and you can still find happiness even in the little things.

Practicing daily gratitude did not only helped drastically improved my mental health but it also helped me find hope even during difficult times.

7. Be Kinder To Yourself

Are you also guilty of constantly criticizing yourself and always beating yourself up for every little mistake?

Learning to be kinder to yourself and giving yourself compassion and grace does not only help drastically improve your mental health and overall well-being but it can also boost your self-esteem and confidence.

I know that sometimes tough love can be motivating and eye-opening. But the problem really starts when we constantly judge ourselves for every flaw and criticize every little detail of our life.

The more that we do this, the more we are negatively impacting our self worth and the easier it is to start doubting ourselves and questioning our capabilities.

Know that you as much as anybody else deserve kindness and compassion. It’s time to learn to be your own cheerleader and stop the negative self talk.

8. Set Healthy Boundaries

Setting healthy boundaries is another vital aspect in protecting your peace and mental health, making it a great mental health goal.

I want to ask you this, how many times have you overextended yourself to other people because you were so afraid of disappointing them?

How many times have you said yes to other people just to gain their approval and validation?

I can’t even begin to tell you the number of times I have done this. I was guilty of constantly saying yes to other people without realizing that by doing this, I was also saying no to myself and my needs.

It was so hard for me to say no to other people, especially the people closest to me regardless of how burned out and exhausted I was because I have always believed that my worth and value are tied to their approval.

If you feel the same way too, I want you to know that that is not true. You are enough and worthy just as you are now and you don’t have to prove your worth to anybody.

The only validation that you will ever need is your own. Constantly overextending yourself to other people is just exhausting and mentally and emotionally draining.

It did not do me any good. It only left me with so much resentment and anger towards other people.

9. Learn To Be Present And Mindful

In today’s day and age where it is so easy to be swept away by the chaos and noise of life, learning to be mindful and present are more important than ever to cultivate and add to our mental health goals.

Most of us are guilty of spending all our time worrying about the future or reminiscing about the past.

I’m definitely one of those people. I was always guilty of either constantly rushing through my days or just spending my days on autopilot. I didn’t realize that by doing this I was robbing myself of the chance to enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

I was missing out on actually living every little moment of my life. Life is by far too precious and fleeting to spend all our time just mindlessly navigating through our days.

Being mindful and present not only help us make more meaningful connections but also helps us live a more fulfilling and meaningful life.

Here’s a blog post from Very Well Mind that’ll help you learn how to be mindful.

10. Limit Screen Time

This also goes hand in hand with what I’ve mentioned above. Excessive screen time can often rob us of the chance to spend our time more mindfully.

Sometimes when we are spending time with the people that we love, instead of being present, we are often too distracted by our phones.

I’ve learned that by allowing myself the chance to take a break from technology, I’m giving myself the chance to enjoy other activities that actually positively benefit my soul and mental well-being.

It allows me the time to take a step back and reflect on what I’m currently feeling and disconnect from the noise of life and just connect more meaningfully with myself and the people that I love.

11. Learn To Slow Down And Take Breaks

How many times have you constantly pushed yourself to exhaustion and burned out? I’m no stranger to this feeling.

I believed that the only way for me to achieve my goals and find happiness was to constantly push myself every single day regardless of how exhausted and drained I was feeling.

But man was I wrong. Doing that only lead me to emotional and mental burnout. I didn’t realize how exhausted and drained I felt until I fell apart.

There’s no denying that working hard is important but let’s not fail to recognize that taking breaks and just slowing down is also as vital. There’s definitely nothing wrong with allowing yourself to take a break.

Taking a break or slowing down doesn’t make you a failure. Remember that most of the time, taking a break is just what we need to feel more motivated, creative and productive.

12. Create A Plan To Manage Stress Effectively

Stress will always be a part of life. Regardless of how much we try to avoid it. We are all bound to experience a degree of it from time to time that’s why having a plan on how to healthily manage your stress is also another vital mental health goal.

During this process, the important thing to remember is to find the strategy that really works for you and that will also greatly positively benefit your overall well-being.

What really worked for me was meditation. Every time I would face a problem, it allowed me to pause, breathe and calm myself down, instead of allowing myself to be swept away by a million different anxious thoughts and just thinking about the worst possible scenario.

13. Stop The Comparison Game

In today’s world, it’s so easy to spend our time comparing ourselves and our lives with other people.

I’m certainly guilty of this habit. Growing up, I was constantly made to believe that I was in competition with everyone around me. I was constantly compared with everyone else and made to think that for me to be worthy, I have to constantly be better than others.

I took this belief with me without realizing that it was slowly taking so much of me. I didn’t realize how unhappy I was.

Comparing ourselves with others will only ever lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction. We each have different paths and journeys to take.

If we keep comparing ourselves with others and trying to have the kind of life that they have just because we think we need to conform to social expectations to be worthy, we are only wasting so much of our time living somebody else’s life.

You are worthy and enough in your own way and just as you are now. The only person that you should ever compare yourself with is who you were yesterday.

14. Learn To Let Go Of Control

How many times have you spent so much time and energy trying to control every little aspect of your life only to be met with disappointment?

Trying to control every little detail of my life had always been one of my bad habits. I believed that as long as I’m controlling or at least trying to control everything around me, I’m preventing things from falling apart.

But of course, that was not the case. Because the truth is, regardless of how hard we try and how much effort and time we put into it, there are still things that are beyond our control.

If we just keep spending so much attention and energy on those things, we will only be met with a lot of frustrations, heartaches, and disappointments.

The best thing that we can do is to accept the things that are out of our control and focus all our energy on the things that we can.

15. Love Yourself More

Love yourself more, always easier said than done, right?

Most of us are guilty of taking this thing for granted. We choose to put it on the back burner, thinking that it’s really not that important. I used to believe that too.

But when I was going through the darkest days of my life, learning to love myself was one of the greatest things that I have done.

It allowed me to accept my shortcomings, let go of self doubt and finally start believing in myself and in what I can do to improve my life.

Learning to love myself has given me a sense of empowerment that has helped me navigate through the lowest points of my life.

I know that doing this can be difficult. It is certainly something that we have to choose to do every single day even on our darkest days.

If you don’t know where to begin, take this 30 day self love challenge, to help start your self love journey.

Final Thoughts

I hope that these mental health goals have inspired you and helped gave you an idea of where and how to start creating your very own mental health goals.

The important thing to remember throughout your journey to achieving your mental health goals is to be patient with yourself. Remember that not all days will be the same. You will go through ups and downs and sometimes you may find yourself forgetting your mental health goals and reverting to old habits and mindsets.

The important thing is to give yourself grace. Don’t beat yourself up. You can always reset and keep going.

Congratulate yourself for not giving up and for taking the necessary steps needed to improve the quality of your life.