Strategies for Setting Achievable Goals in Addiction and Mental Health Recovery

This podcast episode, "Strategies for Setting Achievable Goals Unit 1 Part 21 Addiction and Mental Health Recovery," hosted by Dr. Donnelly Snipes, emphasizes a pragmatic and incremental approach to behavior change, particularly within the context of addiction and mental health recovery. The core message is that significant change, much like building Rome, is a gradual process that requires time, patience, and structured goal setting. Dr. Snipes advocates for breaking down large aspirations into smaller, time-limited objectives—ranging from daily to even hourly goals—to ensure progress is visible and sustainable.

A key distinction made is the focus on individual strengths and what is within one's sphere of influence. The episode advises concentrating on one's inner environment and immediate outer environment, rather than dwelling on unchangeable external stressors that can provoke negative emotions. This personalized approach ensures that goals are relevant and achievable, building on past successes and inherent capabilities. The concept of "perfection" is explicitly dismissed as an unreasonable goal, with the emphasis shifted to consistent "progress" as the true measure of success in recovery.

Practical insights include the necessity of rehearsal and prompts for new behaviors, likening it to learning lines for a play. Dr. Snipes suggests various tools such as push notifications, journaling, seeking support from a sponsor or coach, and practicing mindfulness to reinforce desired actions. The importance of visualizing the achieved goal for about 20 minutes is also highlighted, along with setting clear start and finish dates for goals to create accountability and a sense of completion. For addiction recovery, the "90 in 90" principle (90 meetings in 90 days) is offered as a concrete example of a time-limited, actionable goal.

The broader implications of these strategies extend beyond addiction and mental health, offering a universal framework for any significant personal transformation. By promoting incremental progress, self-awareness, and the strategic use of environmental supports, the episode provides a compassionate yet effective roadmap for individuals striving to overcome challenges and cultivate healthier habits. It underscores that recovery is a journey of continuous effort and adaptation, where setbacks are opportunities for learning rather than failures, and sustained change is built on a foundation of small, consistent steps.

Rome was not built in a day and your problem whatever it is wasn't either so it's going to take time to make that change.

The best goals are built on your strength and individualized.

Focusing on yourself your inner environment and your immediate outer environment is often a lot more doable in in terms of things that you're actually able to change.

Behavior change like learning lines for a play you wouldn't expect to read the script once and know it by heart you gotta rehearse it you're going to need prompts and assistance.

Perfection is often an unreasonable goal you want to look towards progress.

Relapse starts long before you use.

What you're looking for is if if you're not perfect in your in your sobriety in your recovery ideally the relapse what you're looking at is going back into stinking thinking and then catching it before you actually get all the way back down to using again.

It's great to set goals and it's great to say okay I'm going to do it this many times but if you don't ever get started then you're never going to finish.

You need to put a start date and then ideally a finish date that way you know that how long you've got to accomplish it.

90 meetings 90 days.