Cognitive behavioural therapy is a short-term effective treatment that addresses many mental health concerns – depression, anxiety, insomnia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress, among many others.
CBT is an excellent treatment option because it doesn’t require medication and turns you into your own therapist. However, the problem is that getting these services are either very expensive or have long waitlists.
Fortunately, there are a number of self-help options for CBT. Some of you may have tried books or apps to work on your own mental health concerns. The problem is that although the knowledge can be helpful, implementation can sometimes be tricky. If we are feeling very depressed or anxious, it’s easy to read but hard to put these skills into action.
Using SMART Goals in CBT
SMART Goals, which are mean to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound are a core component of CBT treatment. They are the lifeblood that makes behavioural change possible by finding things to do that are consistent with your mental health goals and increase your likelihood of succeeding.
Sometimes, SMART goals can be a bit too ambitious and lead to a person feeling overwhelmed. As a result, they aren’t able to accomplish them and then end up feeling more hopeless. Therefore, we need some lower intensity goals to build up momentum and break us out of the vicious cycle.
Below, I provide some low-intensity examples of SMART goals that you might be able to try! The important thing is to remember that little things matter. In Atomic Habits by James Clear, he noted that 1% better every day for a period of a year leads to 37 times better than where you started. Therefore, these tasks may be a drop in the bucket; but with enough drops, we can fill up the entire ocean.
Examples of SMART Goals for different mental health concerns
- Take a 10-minute walk every day
- Think about 3 things that you are grateful for
- Find one spot in the house and clean for 5 minutes
- Go outside once a day to get sunlight
- Create a list of meaningful activities and complete one a day
- Make a hot cup of tea in the evening and read for 5 minutes
- Order food from a new restaurant
- Have a short conversation with a neighbour
- Go to an event that you normally would not go to and talk to at least one person
- Spend 15 minutes writing out a recent stressor
- Keep to a consistent wake up time with an alarm
- Spend 30 minutes in the evening to wind down before sleep doing something relaxing
- Get a sufficient number of hours for you (this can vary person to person) each night
Fatigue
- Drink a glass of water in the morning
- Eat three balanced meals a day at least 4 times in the week
- Take a 20 minute break during the day to manage energy
Dealing with obstacles when setting SMART goals
The above are just examples to get your creative juices flowing on how to start setting SMART goals that are consistent with what you want out of treatment! You are welcome to modify, make easier/harder, and totally change the goals to fit your life.
The most important piece is to ask yourself: “How likely am I to succeed?” If the answer is “Not likely,” then it’s important to figure out how to increase success. For example, you can reduce the time or frequency to make the goal more accessible, such as taking a 5 minute walk instead of a 30 minute walk. You could also place the walk during a time right after work rather than in the morning if you usually have trouble getting up.
I hope this post gives some ideas on setting some low intensity SMART goals to change the course of your life!
Best wishes,
P
Simply mental health 