New Year, Better You: A Smarter Way to Recover & Achieve Other Goals

Hi. There. It is that time of year again. A season of big goals, fresh starts, and, yes, New Year's resolutions. But how many times have you set a goal for yourself on January 1st or before, only to find in February you are failing at that goal? Maybe you're determined to work on your anxiety and get better, or. Or maybe your OCD compulsions need to come down and that is your goal for the year. But don't worry, you're not alone. Today we're going to talk about smarter, more strategic and effective ways to make your goals for the new year stick.

First, let's talk about why New Year's resolutions typically fail. Here's a few of them. Number one, they're too vague. We want to get healthier. We want to lose weight. We want to get rid of ocd. They lack clarity and action steps. Number two, they're unrealistic. We set these massive goals to stop all of our compulsions in one month or to lose 20 pounds in the next week. Or we start to work on that goal and we find that the results aren't coming quick enough. So. So we get frustrated and we quit. And the third reason is the all or nothing thinking. Maybe you're trying to make a change and you do pretty good for a couple days, and then one day you go and you eat that snack or you do that compulsion and you think, it's all over. I'm done. I can't do this. The problem is not you. It's the way we typically reframe resolutions and goals. And now I'm going to teach you what to do instead. Instead of a New Year's resolution, we're going to create a system, and here's how to do it. So first, you're going to focus on habits and not goals. So instead of I'm going to get rid of OCD or anxiety this year, I'm going to work on reducing my obsessions and my compulsions. Number two is all about being specific and measurable. Instead of, I want to save more money this year, maybe you decide I'm going to save $10 a month or $50 a month until I reach X number of dollars at the end of the year. Or maybe you decide, I'm going to do one exposure exercise every single day during the week. These are specific, they're measurable, and you want them to feel doable. Yes, you're pushing yourself outside your comfort zone, but. But you want them to feel like something that you can tackle. Don't make that goal so big that it Feels overwhelming, and then you tend to avoid. And lastly, I want you to start small. Then you can build momentum. Maybe you're going to work on reducing one of your compulsions instead of all 30 of them. Start small, get good at that one, and that's going to build a lot of confidence and motivation within you. So to then tackle the next one. And then everything builds on itself as you start to become closer and closer to reaching that goal that you want over time. Success is like compounded interest. The progress that you can make in one week is going to build and build and build. And when you look back 12 weeks later, it feels like really big progress. Now that you have a smarter strategy, let's talk about how to make it so stick more long term. First, you're going to track your progress. One of the things that makes my clients so successful is our compulsions tracker. A lot of people know they're not supposed to do compulsions, but they've never identified them all. And I promise you have more than you realize. And they really don't know which ones they're doing and how often. They don't really know which ones have gone up and which ones have gone down. So tracking your progress is really important. We don't want to do this compulsively. You can take 10 minutes once a week and do this, but tracking where you started and where you're going is really important. If you're interested in downloading one of our compulsions trackers, you can click on the link in the description and we'll share that with you. Next, you're going to create a little bit of accountability. Tell other people what you're doing. Tell them, hey, this is what I'm working on. Can you follow up with me in a week and see how I'm doing? This will help you stay accountable instead of everything being internally or in your head, which then it gets really easy to avoid and stop doing over time. And lastly, I want you to celebrate the small wins. Recovery from anxiety or OCD or any goal, even losing weight, is all about very small wins over time. Like we say compounded interest. So those small wins are going to compound over time. And then until you look back and you feel like you've made really big wins. Remember, it's all about progress and not perfection. So let's recap. Here is your strategy for a successful year, no matter what your goal is. First, you're gonna focus on habits instead of unrealistic goals. Second, you're gonna be specific and you're gonna start small. Third, you're gonna track your progress. You. You're going to build accountability, and you're going to celebrate your small wins. And lastly, you're going to practice reminding yourself that this is about progress and not perfection. This year, we're going to skip the guilt, we're going to skip the overwhelm, and we're going to focus on strategies that actually work. I promise you, if you're consistent and you focus and you bring things back to the basics, you're going to have an amazing year. Thank you for watching. If you found this helpful, give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below and let me know how you liked this video or what videos that you want to hear more about. Happy New Year and we'll see you in the next video.