Why Making a New Year’s Resolution List Is One of the Best Things You Can Do for Your Mental Health (and Your Future)

Those of you who know me know that I’m a sceptical, no-frills kind of person. For most of my life, New Year’s resolutions and “manifestations” sounded like wish lists at best; a nice tradition, sure, but come on. 

If I haven’t given up chocolate by now, what are my chances of waking up on January 1st and suddenly starting a brand-new life?

As it turns out, I was quite wrong.

Writing down goals is actually one of the best things you can do for your brain—and for your future. And not to mention, it’s completely free.

Goal Setting as Brain Fuel: Hope and Mental Health

When you make a serious goal list, you are strengthening a crucial psychological resource: hope.

Not the fluffy, wishful kind, but what psychologists call trait hope: the ability to think in goal-directed ways and believe that progress is possible.

So why is hope so powerful?

1. It boosts your coping skills

Research shows that higher levels of hope are strongly linked to a Positive Coping Style (PCS). In simple terms, hopeful people tend to handle challenges, stress, and setbacks more effectively.

2. It quiets the brain’s stress alarm

People with higher hope levels show reduced activity in the left frontal pole cortex (FPC)—a brain region that can become overactive when we worry about the future. When hope increases, that mental “what if?” loop settles down.

3. Hope prepares the brain for action

Hope consists of two key components:

• Pathway thinking – identifying multiple ways to reach a goal

• Agency thinking – believing you can follow through

When people visualize the steps required to achieve a goal, activity increases in the right postcentral gyrus, a brain region involved in movement and sensory processing. In other words, planning and visualization are already priming your brain for action, before you ever take the first step.

Mental Rehearsal: Why Focusing on the Process Changes Everything

Professional athletes have used mental rehearsal (also known as visualization) for decades. But you don’t need to be training for the Olympics to benefit from it.

Your brain does not fully distinguish between vivid imagination and real experience. When you mentally rehearse an action, the same neural networks involved in movement, focus, and decision-making activate as if you were actually doing the thing.

But there’s a catch.

Mental rehearsal only works when you focus on the process, not the outcome.

Imagine writing down a goal like “get the promotion.” You might be an excellent employee and absolutely deserve it—but if the company doesn’t have the budget and no one gets promoted this year, the goal is suddenly out of your control.

Effective goals are things you can control. And very often, that’s the process, not the result.

A few more important rules:

• Write your goal in the present tense

• Imagine it as if it has already happened

• Picture yourself already having the skills, resources, and support you need

Why does this matter? Because this kind of imagery activates your dopamine system - the brain’s motivation circuit. And without dopamine, nothing meaningful gets done.

Using Hypnosis to Engage the Subconscious Mind

Even with clear goals and good mental rehearsal, many people still feel “stuck.” Sometimes we try everything, we do our best, and nothing works out. 

This is where hypnosis comes in.

In hypnotherapy for goal achievement, two key things happen:

• We find out what is holding you back

Limiting beliefs, old protective mechanisms, fear of failure, negative self-talk, and old emotional patterns can be gently uncovered and reframed at their root. 

• Your goals align with your identity

Through guided suggestion and imagery, hypnosis helps create new neural pathways aligned with your goals. Your subconscious mind starts scanning for opportunities, resources, and behaviors that support success—often without conscious effort.

This is why change after hypnosis can feel surprisingly natural. You’re no longer fighting yourself, you’re stepping into your true self.