It’s January, recognized by mental health advocates as Mental Wellness Month, to encourage individuals to prioritize their mental health as we go forward into the new year.
For most, January is a time for reflection and setting new goals to improve our lives. Ready, get set, go! Well, yes, and no. Whether you achieve or abandon the goals you set for yourself impacts your overall mental wellness – including your self-esteem, identity, and mood, more than you probably realize.
In all likelihood, it’s your approach rather than your capabilities limiting your achievement. According to WebMD, two-thirds of us abandon our January resolutions before the end of the month. WebMD is not telling us that two-thirds of us are incapable of change, but rather that many of us have not learned effective goal-setting skills to achieve the change we seek. Taking steps to nurture your mental wellness can set the tone for a healthier and more balanced year ahead.
What is mental wellness
Mental wellness is not simply the absence of mental illness. It is the complex state of psychological, emotional, and social well-being that allows a person to function at their maximum capacity. Maintaining mental wellness is critical at all phases of our lives—from childhood through the golden years—and impacts our capacity to learn, manage stress, establish and maintain healthy relationships, and feel a sense of purpose and self-worth. Over time, after enough trying and failing or trying and not experiencing change, self-doubt and fear of failure are reinforced, and depression and anxiety set in.
Focusing on process versus outcomes to achieve mental wellness
Focusing on process, your path or intentions, versus outcomes, the result, in goal setting, is one of the healthiest habits for long-term mental wellness. Why, because focusing on your intentions puts your attention on that which is in front of you, working an hour longer, completing an extra credit assignment, putting in an extra 10 minutes on the treadmill—which you most likely can actually control. Outcomes tend to be rigid and require longer periods of time—winning, receiving praise, weight loss, a perfect score, a promotion—are unpredictable and often influenced by other people and factors outside your control, making achievement a greater challenge and increasing the risk of failure.
When self-worth or self-confidence is dependent on outcomes, anxiety, frustration, and depression increase, negatively affecting your general mental functioning and wellness. Reframing your thinking to focus on process, by contrast, means committing to daily actions, habits, and attitudes that move you forward. Focusing on process is about showing up, practicing, setting boundaries, and being kind to yourself. Performance coach and author Brett Bartholomew tells us that when you invest in process, progress becomes steadier and mistakes become learning. Over time, strong processes almost always lead to better outcomes – supporting resilience, self-trust, and emotional balance regardless of how any single result turns out.
Tips on how to focus on process versus outcomes
• When you are identifying a new challenge, focus on the initial steps to build momentum and skills.
• Be kind to yourself, prioritize consistency over perfection.
• Write out your plan, set value-based intentions (your “why”) versus rigid outcome expectations. Focus on how you want to feel while you are on the path.
• Appreciate the steps along the way, even when those steps take you off your path. Progress isn’t linear. Value learning along the way.
• Think about outcomes as an evaluation tool to assess the effectiveness of your process versus the ultimate goal.
• When you feel stuck or anxious, refocus on that which in your plan is controllable and restart there.
• If you feel like you are caught up in setting goals you are not achieving, reach out for support. We are not always the best judges of realistic expectations. Sometimes you just need someone to smile, raise their eyebrows, say “you expected to do what?” and help you reprocess reality.
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, reminds us that winners and losers share the same goals, so the goal itself can’t be what distinguishes them. It’s the focus on, and enjoyment of, the process that is the differentiating factor.
Carol Zuniga, MS, CEO of Hegira Health, Inc., has nearly 40 years’ experience in the behavioral healthcare industry. A Limited Licensed Psychologist in Michigan for 35 years, she was recognized in 2020 by Crain’s Detroit as a Leading Woman in Healthcare. Hegira Health, Inc., a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC), is a leading provider of behavioral healthcare services with clinic locations in Western Wayne and the Downriver communities, including Hegira Health Behavioral Urgent Care, providing walk-in behavioral urgent care services to children (ages 6 and up) and adults, seven days per week M-F 9 a.m. to 9 p.m and 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. weekends.
Carol Zuniga