The new year often brings a mix of excitement and pressure — a chance to hit “reset” and begin again, fueled by the hope for positive change. This energy is tied to the fresh start effect, a psychological phenomenon where milestones like the start of a new year, a birthday, or even a Monday give us the sense of a clean slate and a break from our “old self.” But as motivating as it can be, this fresh start can also feel overwhelming – especially when we’re met with the expectation to create an ambitious list of New Year’s resolutions.
If caring for your mental health is on your list of resolutions this year, you’re not alone. Whether you’re hoping to ease anxiety, build confidence, or navigate life’s challenges, working with a mental health professional — such as a clinical psychologist, LCSW, or LMFT — can help you set goals that feel realistic, achievable, and meaningful. In this article, we’ll explore how therapy can empower your personal growth and well-being, helping you step into 2025 with confidence and purpose.
Key takeaways
- The “fresh start effect” can motivate change but also create pressure. Therapy helps you set realistic, meaningful goals.
- Therapists can guide you in setting SMART goals—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
- Therapy provides tools to address emotional barriers like fear, shame, and procrastination.
- Building healthy habits with strategies like habit stacking and accountability can support lasting change.
- Self-compassion and exploring intrinsic motivations are key to overcoming setbacks and sustaining progress.
Setting goals the right way
Making meaningful changes in your life takes time, effort, and the right tools. Just like using a rake makes gathering leaves easier, having supportive strategies can make achieving your mental health goals feel more manageable. Whether you’re working on building healthier relationships, reducing screen time, avoiding burnout, or boosting self-esteem, setting yourself up for success is essential.
It’s common to struggle with goals due to lack of clarity, unrealistic expectations, or perfectionism. Working with a therapist to set SMART goals — ones that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound — can help you move past these hurdles. A therapist can help you reflect on past challenges, refine your goals to align with your needs, and break them into smaller, more attainable steps. From there, they can support you in creating the tools you’ll need to achieve it.
As you begin to work on your goal, it’s important to pause and celebrate small changes. These moments reinforce progress, build confidence, and keep motivation alive. Even small achievements release dopamine, providing a sense of reward that encourages you to keep going. Your therapist can guide you in recognizing these wins and reflecting on what’s working, helping you to develop realistic expectations for how change unfolds.
Another thing to keep in mind is that growth isn’t always linear, and setbacks are a natural part of the process. A therapist can help you anticipate potential triggers and plan strategies to stay resilient when challenges arise. For example, if you’re cutting back on sugar, you might prepare for temptations at social events by deciding to enjoy one dessert, or choosing an alternative like coffee. With the right preparation and support, you’ll be better equipped to navigate obstacles and stay on track.
Addressing emotional barriers to change
Our emotions often have a way of holding us back from reaching our goals. Think of a time when you knew exactly what you needed to do to make a positive change but chose a different path. It’s a shared human experience — and recognizing the emotions that get in the way is a powerful tool for growth.
While procrastination can seem like laziness, it’s usually more complicated than that. Procrastination often signals that a task is important, or that someone feels anxious about the outcome.
Fear of failure — or even fear of success — can be a significant obstacle. Positive change, as exciting as it may be, can feel overwhelming because it pushes us out of our comfort zones. On the path to growth, emotions like anxiety or shame may also arise. You might feel anxious about the effort required to reach a goal or ashamed at the thought of falling short. Change can even force us to confront past struggles, which can feel frightening.
Procrastination is another common emotional barrier. We’ve all said things like, “I’ll start exercising next week” or “I’ll find a therapist when work slows down.” While procrastination can seem like laziness, it’s usually more complicated than that. Procrastination often signals that a task is important, or that someone feels anxious about the outcome. When a goal is meaningful, it often involves facing tough truths or making uncomfortable change — this creates resistance, making avoidance an attractive option.
Embarking on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with a licensed clinician can give you the tools to help navigate these emotional obstacles. A core principle of CBT is identifying and challenging cognitive distortions — irrational thought patterns that negatively impact how we feel and act. With the support of a mental health professional, you can learn to recognize and reframe these patterns to create lasting change.
For instance, one common distortion is all-or-nothing thinking, where we see situations in extremes and ignore the middle ground. You might think, “I missed my workout today, so I’ll never stick to my routine.” A helpful way to counter this is by reframing extremes — you can replace words like “always” or “never” with gentler, more realistic terms like “sometimes” or “occasionally.”
With this strategy, “I’ll never stick to my routine” — a distorted, demotivating thought — transforms into “Sometimes I’ll miss workouts and that’s okay.”” Another strategy is identifying exceptions. Instead of focusing on perceived failures, look for evidence that contradicts the thought. For example, if you’re thinking, “I’ll never stick to my routine,” recall moments when you did succeed and let those memories challenge the negative belief.
Make your mental health a priority this year
Addressing other barriers
In addition to emotional barriers, external factors can also make it hard to prioritize your goals. Sometimes, the people closest to you may unknowingly resist your growth. This can stem from their fears about how your changes might impact your relationship, disrupt their routines, or trigger their own insecurities. For instance, if you decide to cut back on alcohol, a friend might jokingly say, “Just one more drink — you used to be so much fun.” Even though they may understand your positive intentions, comments like these can create friction and make it harder to stay focused on your growth. A therapist can help you prepare for moments like these, and create strategies for what to do and say to protect your well-being.
Your social, family, or professional environments can also present challenges, especially during the holiday season. This time of year often comes with parties, late nights, and family gatherings that disrupt routines and test your boundaries. You might want to stick to your morning workout, but feel guilty when family encourages you to stay up late. Or, visiting home could stir up emotions that affect your mental well-being. The added stress and chaos of the season can also make it harder to maintain healthy habits. With the help of your therapist, you can identify these challenges and learn skills to stay grounded, helping you stay the course even when things get tough.
Creating and maintaining healthy habits
One powerful way to stay on track with your goals is by creating healthy habits. While it’s not always easy, there are strategies that can help make behavior change feel more manageable. Accountability plays a key role in habit formation, keeping you motivated, offering feedback, and ensuring you stay on course. Sharing your goals with someone you trust creates a sense of responsibility and helps you stick with them, even when willpower wavers. Whether it’s a friend, a therapy group, or an app, accountability provides the support needed to make lasting habits. Other tools, like habit tracking, journaling, and mindfulness, can also reinforce your commitment and help you understand the obstacles, setbacks, and motivations along the way.
When certain thoughts become persistent and pervasive, they form negative core beliefs that shape how we see ourselves. We start filtering the world through this lens, noticing only the ‘evidence’ that reinforces these beliefs — which strengthens their hold on us.
Another important strategy is to focus on consistency rather than perfection. Striving for perfection can lead to frustration, as habits take time to form. The science of habit formation revolves around the habit loop: a cue, a routine, and a reward. For example, seeing your running shoes (cue) prompts you to jog (routine), and the dopamine release (reward) reinforces the behavior, making it more automatic over time.
In therapy, you might explore habit stacking — linking new habits to existing ones, making them easier to incorporate into your routine. Your therapist can support you through this process, offering guidance and built-in accountability to help you succeed.
Improving self-compassion and motivation
In our complex world filled with distractions and competing priorities, our inner world can make it just as difficult to achieve our goals. Therapy can help us cultivate self-compassion, a powerful antidote to these obstacles. Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “I can’t do this,” or “I’m not good enough?” According to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), when these thoughts become persistent and pervasive, they form negative core beliefs that shape how we see ourselves. We start filtering the world through this lens, noticing only the “evidence” that reinforces these beliefs — which strengthens their hold on us. Just as negative core beliefs can shape our sense of self, we can shift them by practicing self-compassion. Cultivating a growth mindset helps challenge self-critical thoughts and allows us to embrace imperfection as a natural part of the human experience.
There are practical ways to nurture self-compassion. Take self-compassion breaks: moments to step back, acknowledge emotions like frustration, and replace self-criticism with kind self-talk. You might say, “I’m struggling right now, but this will pass,” or, “Struggling is a normal part of life.” Reframing setbacks as opportunities for growth also helps. Ask yourself, “What can this teach me?” or, “What can I adjust to move closer to my goal?” Journaling, particularly with a focus on gratitude or self-compassion, is another useful skill. Instead of dwelling on failures, write as though you’re encouraging a close friend, shifting your focus to progress and setting intentions without judgment.
Self-compassion is also deeply connected to self-care. It’s about recognizing that you are worthy of care and prioritizing activities that reduce stress and bring peace. Self-care isn’t just a luxury; it’s essential for achieving your goals and living a fulfilling life.
Lastly, it’s important to examine what drives your goals. Motivation can be intrinsic, driven by personal satisfaction, or extrinsic, fueled by external rewards like recognition. Both can work together, but finding the right balance helps sustain progress. Therapy is a great space to explore your motivations, especially intrinsic ones. A therapist can help uncover deeper motivators and recurring themes, strengthening them to increase resilience and improve goal achievement.
Building support systems and accountability
We are social beings, deeply yearning for connection, understanding, and support. This need can be a powerful force in helping you achieve your goals. Sharing your aspirations with loved ones increases accountability and offers opportunities for self-reflection through regular check-ins. When progress feels slow, this support can keep you going. But support doesn’t have to come just from family and friends. Peer support groups and therapy groups can also offer a safe space to stay connected and motivated. Whether you join a group for a specific challenge or a more general one, there are many options to help you stay on track.
Therapy is another valuable source of support during personal growth. Your therapist becomes a trusted ally, providing a non-judgmental space to brainstorm solutions and navigate challenges. As trust deepens, they can offer insights into the emotional barriers holding you back. Therapy isn’t just about overcoming obstacles — it’s about fostering a supportive relationship that encourages lasting change.
Whatever your goals are, a therapist can help you get there
The new year often brings excitement — and with it, the pressure to set goals for positive change. The promise of a fresh start is motivating, but it’s all too easy to set goals that are unrealistic or vague. This is where therapy can truly make a difference. A therapist can help you create SMART goals — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound — offering you a clear path forward and the support to stay on track.
Along the way, emotional and practical obstacles — like fear, shame, procrastination, and external pressures — can make it feel like reaching your goals is impossible. But with the right tools, you can stay resilient. Learning to build healthy habits, practicing self-compassion, identifying what truly motivates you, and leaning into accountability are all essential strategies for staying grounded.
Therapy provides a safe, supportive space to work through these barriers, building the skills you need to thrive. With trust and guidance, your therapist can help you develop these strategies, setting you up to make 2025 your most fulfilling year yet.
