We have all fallen victim to the cliché personal rebrand of the holiday season, “New year, new me!” With 2022 resolutions on the horizon, here are my thoughts as a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) who helps people set achievable and confidence boosting goals.
Many times, our goals are big, broad, and vague. When we fail to at our big and broad resolutions time and time again, What does “new me” mean anyway? Working towards your goal(s) starts with planning, if you’re a planner like me, this could be the most exciting part. If you aren’t, it’s ok, let me help.
Let’s start at the beginning, say your goal for 2022 is to “spend more time with family”. Great, now let’s break it down as a SMART goal. The SMART method, introduced by George T. Doran, will help us build our goal roadmap.
Specific: This is where you answer the “what” of your goal in a clear and descriptive way
ex: The initial broad goal “I want to spend more time with family” could use more clarity and description. To break it down into smaller and more manageable goals, I could say, “I want to have more family dinners.”
Measurable: Now think about how you will know you have reached your goal. Identify a metric or numeric way to track your goal.
ex: “I want to have family dinners three out of seven nights a week.”
Attainable: Reality check-in! Are you shooting for the moon, but making sure you have the support, resources, buildable knowledge, and time to do so?
ex: “Yes, we already have family dinner two times a week at the least as a family.”
Relevant: Does this goal align with who you are? Is it significant enough to be motivated to accomplish?
ex: “Yes! It is part of a broader goal to spend more time together as a family, which I value and teach my kids too as well”
Time-Bound: When do you want to conclude this goal by? Is it a goal achievable within a week? A month? A year? Having a set day to accomplish this goal can help motivate you to get it done.
ex: “My oldest is headed to college in August, so I we have eight months until we have to revisit this goal.”
New SMART Goal: I want to have three family dinner nights a week for eight months!
Sometimes, once you get to the “measurable” section, your goal may not lend itself to being measured. You may have to go back and really think about the how and what of your main goal a little more, it takes practice. Another important thing to note while creating goals is to remember that future you is still YOU. After a couple of incredibly trying years this world has experienced, make sure to give yourself plenty of grace and even more time to build the habits you are hoping for.
Inevitably, we all stray off the path and face obstacles on the way to achieving goals. Think of it as an opportunity to regroup and re-strategize with the things you have learned instead of viewing it as a failure. Of course, goal setting is more nuanced than this article could ever contain – however, I hope this gives you a starting point to start accomplishing your new year resolutions!
Promise Community Health Center Mental Health Team
Promise Community Health Center offers a range of mental health services. Our mental health team collaborates with our patients to assess current coping skills, address emotional needs and work through lifelong patterns. These services are available on-site and by Telehealth by our mental health department.
Promise Community Health Center is proud to provide bilingual mental health therapy in northwest Iowa. Our bilingual therapist can provide mental health services in both English and Spanish. Promise also provides our patients with a mental health interpreter who is qualified to interpret into Spanish for Spanish speaking mental health patients. Our goal is to make sure that our patients are able to do mental health therapy in the language they feel most comfortable speaking. We are happy to have bilingual mental health therapists and counselors and a mental health interpreter to provide accessible and affordable bilingual therapy in Northwest Iowa.
What can Promise Community Health Center in Sioux Center mental health therapists help with:
- Developing & exploring effective coping skills
- Addressing emotional needs
- Working through lifelong patterns
- Working through difficult life situations
- Developing better communication skills
- and so much more!
Our mental health therapists and counselors in Sioux Center provide many therapies including:
- Individual Therapy
- Child Therapy
- Adolescent Therapy
- Couples Therapy
- Women’s Issues Therapy
- Online Therapy
- Family Therapy
Our Promise mental health therapists are specialized and trained in many different therapies including:
- Anxiety Therapy
- Trauma Therapy
- A.R.T.- Accelerated Response Therapy
- EMDR- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy
- Art Therapy
- DBT- Dialectical Behavior Therapy
- Generational Family Therapy
- Complex Trauma Therapy
- CBT- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Trauma Services Therapy
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Therapy
Our Sioux Center therapists and counselors are offering services to the following in our northwest Iowa communities:
- Children- Ages 8 and older
- Adolescents
- Adults
- Couples
- Families
Some of our mental health therapy patients come from Sioux Center, Rock Valley, Inwood, and Rock Rapids. We also provide mental health therapy and counseling for patients from Boyden, Hull, Sheldon, George, Sibley, and Spencer. Patients needing mental health therapy or counseling also come from Le Mars, Orange City, Alton, Hawarden, and Hudson. Promise is proud to provide mental health therapy and counseling to northwest Iowa.
