Category: Mental health

Posted on by

Use SMART Goals To Up-level Your Life Today!

I have been feeling this strong pull to talk about goals all week now. Maybe it’s because we entered March this month and by now at least 43% of us who set goals around the New Year have already given up on them or hit huge obstacles to deter us. Maybe it’s because, I have had to do so much adjusting to my own goals already this year because, of life changing, my family needing different levels of my time and support now, and honestly I really was unprepared for what my new goals were actually going to entail and how much my life was going change with it all. I have had to rewrite, and re-evaluate my goals and personal development plan many times already this year to make sure they are still SMART goals for me.

Goals have many benefits to having them intentionally in your life. I know some people reading this blogpost will know what goals are and already use them intentionally pretty often in their lives by using things like bullet journals, vision boards, and creating 5 year plans. While others reading this post will know what goals are but, loosely use them by having goals; as in some day dreams, like some day I want to own my own business or own a home etc. And others even yet may not use goals at all. That can happen for many reasons, not knowing what you even want, mental health issues, etc.

No matter what your current relationship is with goals this will benefit you. I was a person who did all the things like bullet journaling, setting goals for the day, week, month, year, etc, having a goal board. I loved having goals in my life but, even than I would have a lower success rate than I would like and lower follow through than I was proud of. Than I was taught this skill in DBT and all of that changed! My life completely up leveled. ( I Still have some major set backs I am navigating through) but, I set over 150+ goals last year and I met all, but about 20 of them by the end of last year. Continue reading to learn all about this skill and how to have it do the same for and your life!

First, What Are The Benefits of Goals

I touched on it earlier that there are many benefits to setting goals so what are they? First, the benefits really can be endless. Because, each goal you choose to set is going to have it’s unique set of benefits it will bring you personally when you achieve it. There, are some overarching benefits you can experience every time you set and achieve a goal we can take a look at next.

One of the many benefits goals can bring to you and your life is providing you with a sense of direction, and something to actually strive and work for. In a way our goals guide our sense of purpose and being and fuel our motivation for life in general. For myself, personally when I don’t intentionally have goals I am working on, and I have a plan on how I will achieve them my depression, my bpd. and my overall mood stability is honestly, just shit. When I don’t have a goal/s I am working on actively, is one of the times when I will completely disappear and sink into the depths my emotions can at times drown me in. If you have nothing you are striving for it can make it hard to want to be an active participant in your life.

Another benefit you can experience by intentionally having and using goals in your life is the mental health benefits you get from achieving a goal like the sense of building mastery. Building Mastery is when you do something that causes you to feel a rush of pride and a sense of accomplishment. You are doing something completely, fully and that you are literally able to master as you are doing this. I get this sense of feeling every time I achieve a goal I have set and honestly it can get quite addictive at times and it really does help keep my emotions stable.

The last benefit I will talk about is how setting goals and having them be an intentional part of your life is how you create a life worth living, how you get anything you want, and how you find happiness. If you want to get anything in life you have to actually do something to obtain it or achieve it. This is just simply how the universe we exist in works. It is how energy works and its one of the keys to manifestation I feel many miss. We can’t just put the energy out into the universe with our thoughts, You can dream, and tell yourself some day you will have the life that makes you feel fulfilled and is your soul purpose. But, how you actually make that happen is by deciding what you want to achieve, making a plan how to use them using SMART goals and than you follow thru with your plan.

What are SMART Goals?

We have spent some time talking about the benefits of using goals in general and what they can possibly bring to your life. Now, let’s talk about what are SMART goals specifically. First, SMART is an acronym that stands for S-specific, M-measurable, A-Attainable, R-Relevant, and T-Timely, but, we are going to break down what each of those means in a just a little bit.

SMART goals are a very detailed, layered, and specific way to set your goals so that you can attain them with ease and have a much higher chance of success. I really look at SMART goals as goals on steroids with purpose and intention. When you set your goals using this method you are creating a very clear image of what your goals are, how you are going to achieve them, when you will achieve them and how you will keep yourself accountable and motivated. Now, let’s look at what each step in SMART goals stands for and how to do it to achieve your goals.

S Stands For Specific- Be As Specific As You Can Be

The S stands for specific. When it says be specific it means be as specific as you possibly can be. You need to be very clear about what it is that you want to accomplish and achieve. Every part of the goal you need to be able to visualize, know in and out, and know what it is you want out of it. The clearer you are about what it is you truly want to achieve the more you will be able to plan, the more you be able to manifest and the more motivated you be to follow through with your plan to achieve your goals to build a life worth living. It really just is easier to achieve and accomplish your goals when you are specific when you set them.

M Stands for Measurable- Make Your Goal Trackable

The second letter in SMART for SMART goals stands for Measurable. What this means is making your goal when you are setting it measurable in some way. Giving yourself a way to know when you have actually accomplished. This also is a way to add urgency behind your goals and takes them out of a place of being a some day goal, a dream, or wish and makes them actually become reality. It keeps you accountable to yourself as well knowing you will be coming back to your goal at that time to take stock and see what you have been able to accomplish.

A Stands for Attainable-Make Your Goal Realistic

The third letter in SMART for SMART goals stands for Attainable. I personally really need this letter in the acronym and I feel most of us overlook this letter too often when we are setting goals both intentionally and unintentionally. There are times I use to set goals I knew there was most likely no way I was going to achieve them and set way too many at once for many reasons; perfectionism, my OCD, and I simply always have a million and one things I want to get done. When you get to this letter though it is to make sure you are being intentional with setting your goals to set yourself up for success to achieve them. Remember one of the main reasons to set goals is to achieve them and create a life worth living for. Why wouldn’t we want to make sure we are setting ourselves up for the highest level of success by making sure it is something we can actually realistically do.

R Stands For Relevant- Make Sure This Goal Is Something You Should Be Working On

The fourth letter in SMART for SMART goals stands for Relevant. This step in goal setting is when you take a moment and you reflect on the goal you are setting and working towards. You reflect to determine if this goal is currently relevant to your life right now. For example, if one of your goals for the year is to start a garden in your backyard but, you live in Minnesota like I do and the ground is frozen still. This may not be the relevant and right time to be setting and working towards this goal. Some other things to reflect on with your goals to make sure they are relevant are.

T Stands For Timely- Set A Time You Will Achieve It By

The fifth and final letter in SMART for SMART goals stands for Timely. This letter is all about putting urgency into achieving your goals. This is when you set a very clear and specific time you will meet your goal by. Whether you set a specific date or you state you will achieve this goal within 30 days, 90 days or whatever it is you choose. But, it needs to be a very clear and specific timeframe you pick. When you set a specific and clear timeframe you will achieve your goals by, you are putting energy into your manifestation and making it a priority for you brain to focus on accomplishing it. This also creates a sense of accountability for your goals as well you will either be coming back to it in celebration or to reevaluate your plan, make adjustments and keep working towards your goal if needed.

What Does A SMART Goal Look like put all together?

Now that you know what SMART stands for and you have a detailed break down of what each letter means and how it can really impact your goal setting. Let’s take a look at what this looks like when you actually set a goal using the SMART goals method. Below I will list some of my own personal smart goals I had set this last year in my personal development plan and you can see how specific and detailed it is when you write your goals out this way.

  • I will complete my Diary card for DBT treatment every day at 10 pm as part of my night time routine for 30 days in a row. After 30 days I will do so until I graduate DBT
  • I will take my prescribed medications every morning as part of my morning routine for the next 30 days. After 30 days I will continue to do so until they are no longer prescribed.
  • I will create a detailed smart goal board by January 1st in my office based on my completed personal development plan.
  • Every Sunday I will either find or create affirmations for me to use every day of the week. After creating my affirmations I will recite and/or write my affirmations every day as part of both my morning and night routine.
  • I will meditate daily during Olyver’s nap as part of my daily routine.
  • I will cleanse, and purify our entire home every single Sunday as part of my weekly cleaning reset routine
  • I will eat three meals a day for 7 days in a row when my body tells me I am hungry. I will track this in my bullet journal. After 7 days in a row I will eat three meals a day for 3 weeks in a row, than 30 days.
  • I will track my family’s spending daily in our budget planner workbook as part of my nightly routine before bed.
  • I will particpate and observe in every new moon and full moon of the year as part of my biweekly routine and my spiritual practice. I will do this by following all the steps in my book of shadows.
  • I will read from a book for at least 30 minutes every single day after I put Olyver to bed.
  • I will update and create this year’s family binder by the end of January.
  • I will write in my gratitude log twice daily as part of my morning and nightly routine.
  • I will participate in all required sessions for my DBT program weekly until I graduate the treatment program.
  • I will go back and re-evaluate, and update or modify my goal board and personal development plan to make sure my goals still are current SMART goals for me.

Ways To Implement SMART Skills

We have talked about the benefits of SMART goals, what they actually are, how to set them, and what they look like so, now let’s talk about how we can take SMART goals and implement them in different way and different skills in our life to be able to really specifically assist us with our mental health and our lives as a whole.

Accumulating Positive Emotions; Long Term

There is a core DBT skill we can use to help us make sure we are working towards creating a life worth living and maintaining our values and goals while doing so, and it is called Accumulating positive emotions for the long term. This skill is really about making changes in your life so that positive events will occur in the future. This skill implements your SMART goals and the values and morals you used to create your smart goals. I personally use this skill whenever I am feeling like life is becoming to much and I can’t catch a break. Or when I am just having a hard time with a sense of direction due to overwhelm. Let’s walk thru how to implement your SMART goals while using this skill.

  • Avoid avoiding- Start now to do what is needed to build the life you want. If you are not sure what to do than you follow all the steps below
  • Identify Values that are currently important to you- Ask yourself what Values currently mean the most to you in your life right now?
  • Identify ONE value to work on NOW- What is really important to me, right now to work. This one is important for me and a huge reason why I use this skill. It really allows my focus and get myself into a positive and productive state.
  • Identify a few goals related to this value- This is where you will come back to your smart goals you created earlier and identify what goals you have created that are related to this value.
  • Choose one goal to work on now- Do a pros and cons list or a priority ranking if necessary to select which goal it is you want to work on.
  • Identify small actions steps towards your goal- Ask yourself what small steps can you take to get to your goal?
  • Take one action step now- It is exactly what it says. Pick one of those small action steps you brainstormed and go and do that action step.

Below I have a blank example of the DBT worksheet to use when using this skill and an example of me using this skill as well

DBT Accumulate Positive Emotions in the long term11-Getting-from-Values-to-Specific-Action-Steps

Create A Personal Development Plan

The second way that you can take your SMART goals and implement them in your life to help you up-level your life is by creating a personal development plan. A personal development plan is something I came up with while in DBT treatment and learning how to set SMART goals and the accumulating positive emotions for the long term skill. As I have touched on many times before I have OCD so I get obsessive, I plan all the time, and I over do it with the amount of tasks I take on which leads to massive burn out and often. It had become common for me to have so many goals and so many projects I was working on I never could fully finish or get things to my vision because I wasn’t setting clear enough goals. I also loved how much joy, building mastery, and productivity in peace it brought me.

So, I sat down for a month straight every single night and every moment I had to create this personal development plan which combines those two skills SMART goals and getting from values to specific actions steps ( the breakdown of Accumulating positive emotions for the long term) and I took it and amplified it and wrote out a breakdown of every single goal I wanted to meet last year. Every single one. I created every step it would take to meet the goal, ranked its priority and made sure they fit the values and pillars of my life I wanted to focus on and that were important to me. My overall goal while creating this one was to completely overturn my life and create a life I wanted to stay alive for.

When creating your personal development plan there are some questions you want to focus on as you create it with your SMART goals. These questions help you create the plan as a whole and they help you make sure it truly is created based on your SMART goals. Below is the list of questions to use when creating your personal development plan with SMART goals.

Once you have those questions in the forefront of your mind and you feel ready to really plan with SMART goals its time to create your personal development plan. Let’s talk about how we do that, the steps to do that and what each step looks like. I will even show you some pages of each step of my own personal development plan as we go.

Step 1- Decide on your Values/Pillars of you plan. The first step to creating a personal development plan is to help create focus and guidance with your plan and to make sure your SMART goals are in alignment with your core values. What you do here is decide on the core values/pillars/categories you want to focus on and your goals to be based on. The amount of this can be whatever it is you would like it to be from 3- 19, mine had the later. Do whatever is going to work for you that doesn’t lead to any unwanted feelings like overwhelm, shame, or judgement. Below is the list of the values/pillars/categories I focused on last year.

Step 2- Brain dump. This step for me is honestly the hardest because, I want to control the amount of the things on it, or to make it even and sometimes it can be difficult for me to release the judgement as I am brain dumping and letting things come to as they come. What you do here is you let your mind run wild, you let go, and you intuitively write any and all goals you could think of you would want to accomplish that fit into those values you had picked out just before this.

Step 3- Evaluate your brain dump. The third step to creating your personal development plan is taking a look at your brain dump and simply eliminating anything that may not be realistic or just doesn’t fit your priorities or values. There is no need to judge yourself for having written it down just simply acknowledge it and decide to save it for a different time or that it doesn’t fit your values and that’s okay.

Step 4- SMART goals. The next step in creating your personal development plan is either adding in SMART goals you had previously written out and created or you create them now. Don’t forget to follow all of the steps to create SMART goals we talked about above.

Step 5- Priority Rankings. This step helps you create some order to your SMART goals. In this step you will literally go through and rank the order of priority each goal has to me of importance to complete. When it comes to importance that can mean different things; so think about whether it is more urgent because of time and season, the level of happiness it could bring you, or if there would be negative consequences if you do not achieve that goal. You can even use pros and cons lists if you need here to help you rank them.

Step 6- SMART GOAL action steps. The sixth step in creating a personal development plan is writing out and planning all of the action steps you will need to take to achieve and meet your SMART goals. It really is that simple, you will write out every single action step you will have to take to meet your goal. This helps you in so many ways. It helps eliminate overwhelm, creates structure, and sets you up for success by having a clear vision of what to do.

Step 7- Plan when you achieve your goals. The final and last step of creating your personal development plan is planning when you will achieve them. This step gives you a sense of urgency, a deadline, and a schedule for your plans. I also personally love this step because, it helps me remember that my personal development plan is all about getting the life I want by the end of the year. It is about progress and not perfection and building things one day at a time. When it comes to planning it will be up to you what that schedule looks like. If you are only planning for 1 month, 3 months, or 6 months that is totally fine. I just did a year because that was the purpose of my personal development plan.

Those are all the steps to creating your personal development! Now you can use this help you up-level your life and create a life that is worth living for you. Here are a few other extra tips to help make creating your personal development plan a little easier. Use a bullet journal or something that is durable and that you can come back to over and over again. When you are creating your plan color coordinate your plan through each step by categories. Having things color coordinated just makes it easier and quicker when you are sorting through all the information and creating each step of your plan.

Create A Goal Board

If you don’t want to get as detailed as a personal development or if you want a visual representation of your personal development plan for you to see in your physical space often; you can create a goal board. Some people like to also refer to these as vision boards and other names as well. For me, I just do not vibe with calling it a vision board. A vision board doesn’t have the energy of action behind it. It feels like a lofty someday dream. And when I goal set and plan I want to do so in conviction, determination and with active movement of energy behind it. Creating a goal board can look quite literally whatever you can come up with that motivates you, draws your eye to it and that works with the space you have. Do whatever is going to work best for you to serve as visually reminder of your SMART goals. I personally love being able to visually see when they checked off or are moved to they accomplished section it definitely gives you a special kind of rush!

Things To Be Cautious About With SMART Goals

We have spent a lot of time talking about the many benefits and positive aspects to SMART goals. Well because, they really truly are an amazing thing to do and a great way to really up-level your life and create one that is worth living for. With that being said there are some things to keep in mind when you are using SMART goals intentionally in your life and when you are creating them.

Be aware of Tunnel vision. What I mean by this is when you are working very intentionally with SMART goals in your life sometimes they become all you can see. They become your focus, and the main thing you care about. You can become obsessed. Which can lead to some damaged interpersonal relationships, missed opportunities, failed responsibilities, and neglecting some of your other values.

Be aware of Inflexibility. When working with SMART goals sometimes you can get rigid, and very set with sticking to the plan you created to meet it. I mean why wouldn’t we want to? We took the time to actively plan ahead and create a way we are pretty confident will help us achieve our goals. One of the main points of creating SMART goals is this very thing. Even with that being the case sometimes things just don’t work as well as we thought they would, or our lifestyle changes, or there are things going on in the world that change how we have to function in it. Whatever it is don’t allow yourself to be unwilling to change and adapt your SMART goals and how you will achieve them instead of being so loyal to them you choose to not meet or achieve them at all.

Be aware of Perfectionism. This one is really one I personally have to make sure I check in on often. I really struggle with this one and the cycle it can cause, especially with goals. When working with SMART goals intentionally in your life, it may be very hard to work on goals at all if you aren’t perfect and if you make mistakes. For example, if you do really well working towards a goal every single day for two weeks and than for some reason like mental health, or your schedule you miss one day and the shame spiral begins. For me if it gets bad enough I will walk away from a SMART goal completely. Be aware of this need and desire for perfectionism and remember it is all about progress not perfection. It’s about creating a life worth living by the end of your SMART goal not the entire time you are working on it.

Using SMART Goals Can Shift Your Alignment And Manifestation

We have talked a lot about SMART goals the many mental health benefits and how they can help you create a life worth living by creating very specific and detailed goals. Let’s talk about one last and final reason you really should start using SMART goals in your life today and that’s the benefits it can bring to your manifestation and alignment. Using smart goals will automatically shift you into a more aligned mindset to connect to the energies and frequencies you are seeking to connect to. When you are aligned with those frequencies your ability to manifest a life worth living and your dreams becomes much easier to do.

When you use smart goals you also put the movement and energy needed to make your manifestations come to fruition. SMART goals help you ensure that you are not missing the crucial part of your manifestation which is active movement of energy behind your manifestation. You can not only align your thoughts and words for manifestation through shadow work, and/or affirmations but, you still have to do the actions, put in the work and move the energy. SMART goals really just forces you to do that. You can’t achieve your SMART goal if you don’t follow through with your steps and plan.

Start Using SMART Goals Today

I have walked you through many reasons why you should use SMART goals in your life, What a SMART goal is, how to use them in your life, and the benefits using them can bring to you. SMART goals have literally changed my life in more ways than I can even begin to list. They have helped me bottom line shift my perspective and my life to one that I find worth living each and every day and that is the best reason of all to add SMART goals to your life today. Now that you know how to from this article you can go and do the same! Intentionally live with smart goals to create a life worth living!

Come join me the first Saturday of January to revolutionize how you set your goals for 2025. Let me show you hand in hand how to create my personal development plan. You will leave with your entire years worth of SMART goals planned, a way to keep yourself accountable, and have a clear path on how you meet every goal you set. https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/4ZKQ6FXMUGGEJ

Have you been feeling stuck, emotionally unstable, missing joy in your life, or having a hard time connecting to yourself and your magic? Do you want to start the new year from a different headspace? I have the answer for you to start out this new year from a place feeling grounded, present, and ready to manifest your dream life. Come join me for this special one time only two day event teaching you how to integrate the practice of Mindfulness to your magic and life!

What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one’s attention to the present moment without judgment. It allows you to move from just existing in life to thriving, get back to wise mind, create a place to heal and grow in, and most important of all, align you with joy while creating a life where you truly thrive! This skill is a core skill in DBT, the therapy that changed my life! To register for this special two day event visit the link below! https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/JY5UBMB2TA27L

Come join me for community, knowledge, and to restore the enchantment of magic in yourself and life today!

Don’t forget to head over to the shop today for eBooks, workshops, resources, and 1:1 services with me!

Facebook
Patreon
Email
Pinterest

About Me : I have been a solitary grey magic practitioner for 15 + years. First and foremost, I consider myself a mystic and seeker of all knowledge. I am dedicated to the restoration, and re-enchantment of Magic in society, across this realm, and in each and every soul I come across in life! I am here to create a container that promotes healing, duality, and raw authenticity. I do this by guiding you on your personal journey to understanding your unique magic and sacred contracts. I facilitate this for you through embracing your shadow, duality and learning to live in energetic balance while not wearing a mask. When you work and learn from me you do so from your “darkness” as much as your “light” and in a way to truly harness and accept it not to just go thru it on the way to your light. But, I teach you how to truly embrace it, work with it, and use it alongside your light as a partner. I hold up a mirror for you to be able to see your authentic reflection looking back. Then have the courage to take the next step and do the uncomfortable but vital inner work to completely remove your mask. By facing all of your past wounds, traumas, and hurts. Allowing you to see both the dark and light within your story and take each chapter and alchemize it into something that is so powerful. your unique internal flame will shine so bright you will always be able to go within and find it on a dark cold night. You will learn how to truly live in duality and energetic balance to allow growth, and alignment with your sacred contracts and purposes. to finally move on and truly let the things that hold you back in this life from healing and manifesting go. To see everything I offer; like personalized shadow work sessions, womb healing, eBooks for you to work through on your own, Tarot sessions for guidance and more! Go to my shop!

© 2025, Modgepodgemystic.com LLC

Posted on by

How to reset your life completely with this monthly guide!

There are so many reasons your life, your home, or you could need a complete reset. It could be simply because it’s the end of or beginning of the month. I personally do one of these at the beginning of every month and am even writing this blog post for all of you as I work through mine. I just feel so much more organized ( my OCD needs this), refreshed, grounded, motivated and prepared to head into whatever the new month may be bringing me.

But, like I said there are so many reasons to do one and sometimes this happens once a week in my home even. It could be you have visitors coming soon and would just feel more comfortable doing one prior. For me, it’s not about worrying about how they will view me or my home it’s about making sure I have nothing but, positive and lively energy in my home/ safe space BEFORE I allow others into it.

It could also be for mental health reasons; maybe you just got behind on your daily or weekly tasks and now the only way to begin is to simple reset it all.

Or, maybe you have a really busy schedule coming up for the next few weeks and you just want to feel prepared and ready and get as much done beforehand to make it a little less stressful.

No, matter the reason why you, your home, or your life may need an entire top to bottom reset it doesn’t matter but, this guide is for you! Keep in mind this is tailored to myself, my needs, my brain, my family, and my lifestyle so, ALWAYS tailor it to fit YOU. Take what you need and leave what you don’t. I know not all of this will be for everyone. I have OCD and DID so, I am both obsessive and have memory issues so , I do some things a couple different ways to ensure it is all done correctly. My entire family of 3 are also all Neurodivergent so some things not every family will need.

The purpose of doing a reset

I touched on earlier that there are many reasons why you may be wanting to do one but, what’s the purpose and what benefits do you get from doing one?

First, organization no matter how organized of a person you are you, your system will need a revamp, a declutter, and a reboot from time to time to remain efficient because, you, your life, and your family are constantly changing. Also a HUGE part of being organized is using systems and schedules and resets have to be apart of that sense we reset in so many ways in our lives from weekly, monthly, seasonally, yearly and so on.

Second, doing this brings you so many different mental health benefits. From building mastery, using smart goals, boosting self esteem, confidence, lessoning anxiety, gaining motivation and helping you build a life worth living.

Third, it’s honestly the best cope ahead plan you could ever create for yourself and consistently use. It helps you make sure you are prepared, have a plan in place and are set up in the best way possible for success including having ways to cope with obstacles affectively. If you want to learn more about how to create a cope ahead plan you can read more here in my previous blog post.

The Checklist

We have talked about what it is, how it can benefit us so how do we do one? I have a master checklist for this in a few places, my family binder, my bullet journal (BUJO), and in my personal development plan (PDP). You can choose to do it however works best for you!

I love bullet journals though mainly because they are so customizable. You get to make them exactly what you want, you can buy them in different sizes and you can use so many different kinds of writing utensils as well.

Once you decide where you want to create your master check list next is adding your items on it. Below I will walk you through what is on mine and later we will go into detail of what I do specifically for each one.

  • Brain dump
  • Budget
  • Personal Organization
  • Reflection of the past month
  • Family Organization
  • Clean Home
  • Set this Month’s Goals and Intentions
  • Schedule (s)
  • Take some time to Rest
  • Self-Care
  • Choose your pillar(s) for the month

If this looks like a lot or overwhelming for you, you can always take out things you don’t feel you need. Also remember this isn’t something that you have to do in one day either. Some times I get it all done in a Day, sometimes in 2 or 3, and sometimes I plan it out and spend and entire week doing this, usually it is during the last week of the month or the first.

Let’s break down the Checklist

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty details of each thing on my master checklist, what that category or thing means, how I do and what benefits I get from doing it!

Brain dump

If you have never done one of these before or heard of what they are it really is exactly what it sounds like. It’s sitting down and literally dumping everything out of your brain for a given topic or purpose. This time you will be using it to brain dump your master Ta Da list or as others call it a To list. I personally just don’t like the To Do List it makes it seem so much more of a dreaded forced obligation so I call them Ta da lists. As a way to go ” Ta Da” I did it and congratulate myself for getting it done. Whichever you choose to call it or even something else that is how you are going to approach this brain dump.

Here is how you are going to do it. I try my best to do these when my son is napping or asleep and my husband is preoccupied so, I can have the ability to be in my own space and not be interrupted. I like to make sure my brain dumps get all of my attention when I am doing them for a few reasons. One, so I don’t forget anything and another reason sometimes things come up for me that I need to do that I either didn’t know at all or I didn’t realize how important they were to me.

Once, I am in my own quiet space or sometimes I listen to music as well to help my brain focus so if you need that it’s okay too. I grab my bullet journal, you can use whatever it is you want to; a notebook, a pad, a piece of paper, a post it note, whatever it is you want to use. But, once I have my bullet journal I set up my pages the way I like to with my 4 categories. You don’t have to do this, a lot of people suggest not having any categories at all and just writing whatever it is that comes to you with no structure at all. For me, due to my OCD in order for my brain to even be able to express itself enough to know what it wants at all it needs some type of structure. Without it, leads to chaos, massive anxiety and dissociation. My 4 categories sometimes change but, typically it’s some version of this Admin, projects, cleaning, and goals setting. You can pick whatever you need for your categories and how many as well. For me, four honestly is picked because that is how many I can fit evenly on my page layout.

When, I have my categories written in and my page set up drawn in. I take a few deep breaths and I go through and write whatever comes to me in each category. I pick one category at a time and focus on that but, if you just want to write whatever comes to you and jump around you can too. Follow your brains direction. Do this until you are done. Once you feel you got it all out, take a look at all you have written this brain dump, just became your new Ta Da list. The next step is to plan out how, and when you will get things done and in what order. If you need help on how to do that I highly suggest using the Post It method I take about in this article it just is going to be on a grander scale.

Otherwise, you can just simply rank them in priority one a piece of paper based on level of importance, how they make you feel when you will complete them, how much time they will take, if it is something you can complete now or need to prep for, do you have all the items needed to complete it if it needs some and anything else you may need to consider. Than use your plan your created to complete your Ta da list and enjoy the overflowing of emotions your will be flooded with when you build this level of mastery.

Budget

Even though this item would also be on my ta da list from my brain dump under the admin section it’s so important I feel it needs it’s own stand out section. Now as a preface, by no means am i well off, nor am I the best at money and some fininacial guru. I actually am not the best with it. I have a lot of intellectual knowledge I have learned since becoming and adult but, for many reasons I’ve spent majority of my adult life in poverty. My family as I am writing this is struggling quite badly financially for many reasons. We have dealt with eviction, homelessness, and also having more money than we need and renting a fairly nice new home and leasing brand new cars.

With, all that being said I still no matter how little money my family is going to have or how much; write out and create a budget for the month at least and sometimes for the week. At times I even go as far as tracking and writing one out daily. If you have no idea of what your finances even look like there is no way to even begin to plan what the rest of your life is going to look like. I know I hate it too. But, there are things about the world and society that in order to thrive in it we do have to accept and come into some kind of alignment with and at least creating a budget and having a view of what it will look like gives you a bridge and opportunity to do that. Below is one of the planner pages I like to use and this is a budget book I have been using for a few years now https://www.amazon.com/Sort-Your-hit-Out-Paycheck/dp/1079491058

https://www.printabulls.com/finance/monthly-budget-planners/

Personal Organization

This will look different for everyone so, make sure you do whatever it is that speaks to you and makes your soul happy and feel organized and ready to take on life. When it comes to what personal organization is and should be. It’s whatever you need to do for yourself to keep you personally on track and living the life you want to live. If you have a family and/or kids it’s not their schedules or home school lesson plans. It’s YOUR personal schedule, your personal goals, your personal development tools, your self care needs, and so much more.

My personal organization is really centered around my bullet journal. I create Daily, weekly, and monthly spreads. I create habit trackers, self care trackers, any checklists I need for any of my own projects I do for me that don’t involve the family like my teaching schedule, RFAN agendas, content scheduling for her and so on. I even take the time here to pick out or create affirmations and put them in my bullet journal for me to come to when I may need them later and as reminders to. If you needs ideas for inspiration Pinterest is my favorite place to get inspiration for bujo spreads from. Let me know in the comments to if that’s something you want to see a future blog post about as well.

Reflection of the Past Month

This step is one of the most important ones for me and I hope it becomes that way for you as well. It is so important to me because doing this helps give me direction for my next month, helps me realize what worked and what didn’t in my planning from the previous month or reset, and it grounds me in my reality.

When you do this you are essentially taking stock, and holding yourself accountable. You are evaluating your plan from before and finding what worked that you can use this time and what didn’t that may need to be changed. You are forcing yourself to really look at truly where are in at in both your life and your goals. Which makes sure you are grounded fully in what your reality is. Sometimes this affect is not what we want especially if we are stuck in a cycle of avoidance and it can be overwhelming but, it’s also what we really need as well if we are seeking a reset to begin with.

How I choose to reflect usually looks like me leafing through my bullet journal and looking to see what is I had accomplished and what I had not. What I had decided to no longer pursue and why. Did I make and leave any notes for myself to come back to? Than I end up in Meditation, and doing other things like going thru my personal development plan for that month and year, my goal board and other things. Once I have done all that I typically have a pretty clear vision of what it is I want my life to look like by the end of this reset and how I can make that happen.

Family Organization

No matter what family looks like for you, you and a pet, your partner and yourself, a single parent, or a family with multiple generations in one home when it comes to a monthly reset you have to consider them in your reset. They affect your schedule, how you can organize, how much time you have and what goals you can have the ability and freedom to set for yourself. However it looks to you make sure you don’t forget this. For me, this is updating my family binder, my family command center, double checking my son’s and husbands schedules like medical appointments, creating our home school lesson plan, and planning any family outings we may be doing that month. If you want to learn more about creating a family binder or command center don’t worry I have blog post coming soon to break those down into much more detail.

Deep clean your entire home

When I say deep clean I mean you are going to go thru each and every room top to bottom and clean all of it, reorganize anything that needs it, you can even redecorate it if you need to, and declutter. If you don’t need any planning tools to accomplish just go ahead and get it all done and this list should be coming from you brain dump as well. So, don’t forget to include any cleaning tasks that had come up for you when you had been making that earlier. If you want a little more structure you can always create a master checklist that you keep in your bullet journal and/or your family binder. My check list breaks it down to the cleaning deep cleaning tasks, decluttering, and reorganization.

Doing this as part of your reset may seem like not that big of deal but, if your environment isn’t set up for you to grow, and flourish in no matter how hard you try to, you won’t get as tall and beautiful as you were meant to be. Deep cleaning your home sets your environment up to be in energetic alignment with the life you are trying to create with this reset. It builds mastery, it cleanses out old, stagnant and unwanted energy, and it sets you up for success in the rest of your plans and goals going forward.

Set this month’s goals

So far a lot of what we have talked about has been about getting ready for your next steps, your next, the next month etc. But, what is it you are actually doing this all for? Well your goals of course! The things that are going to make your soul sing with joy, and make your life worth living for. So, now is the time to set those goals and I bet if you go back and look at that brain dump you did it will help spark some ideas for you on what you want you goals to be if you are struggling to think of some.

One thing I want to talk about briefly is how to actually set active goals that you will accomplish is making sure to use the DBT skill SMART goals. It’s an acronym for an effective, and detailed way to set goals and actually achieve them. I Talk about it in a few of my previous blog posts in the personal development section of the site and I do plan on talking about it in much more detail in another blog post coming up.

So, what does smart stand for; S-specific, M-measurable, A-attainable, R-relevant, T-timely. If you follow this template for creating your goals it makes it very difficult to fail actually. You can also create a PDP using this skill and than make to use things like reminders, and affirmations to help you meet your goals if that is something that works for you. It does for me so no shame in it at all.

Schedule(s)

When it comes to doing a reset on your life a crucial part to doing that is knowing where your time is going to be spent and how much of it you have to spend on each one of your goals or that you can dedicate to achieving them. So, make sure to take the time to get your schedule in order. Whether that means you need to break down your daily schedule by the hour and write it out in your bullet journal like I do, or simply syncing up your google or apple calendar on your phone, or filling in a physical calendar for your home, or redoing your calendar for your command center.

Do whatever it is you need to do to get your schedule organized and in some place for you to easily access it when you need it. Like I said I am obsessive so, I use a bullet journal daily schedule spread, my google calendar, a family command center and a weekly schedule board. I also make sure to include my son’s schedule and my husband since I am the keeper of that in our home.

Take Some Time to Rest

The whole point of a reset is to make sure you are completely refreshed, reenergized, motivated, prepared, and just ready to take on anything this next phase and time frame will be throwing at you. And to set you up to meet all of your goals you have set. How can we do that if we are tired, and have a depleted battery. So, make sure to take time while you are doing this to rest, relax, recharge, take care of yourself, and do things that replenish your desire. If you need some ideas on how to do this thru the act of self love you can check you my previous blog post on the topic here for loads of ideas. https://modgepodgemystic.com/the-magic-of-self-love-and-how-to-maintain-it-thru-self-care/

Self Care Prep

For some this may not be a thing that is need for you. For me, I need to plan and prep for many reasons, it also is an act of self care for me as well. I have to plan out my self care. I have to pick what I am going to be doing and when. One thing I do for self care is play video games and every single day I have blocks of time in my schedule to make that happen. As in literally written into my schedule. I also have to create affirmations, quotations, and reminders for myself to be in my bullet journal and around my house, including a self care habit tracker for my bullet journal. So, for my prep for my reset I take the time to create those reminders, get any items I may need restocked, and make sure I have it planned into my schedule.

Choose your Pillar(s) for the month

What do I mean by this? I took a seminar a few years ago I believe with Sisters Enchanted. If you have never checked them out you can do so here; https://thesistersenchanted.com/ and their was a huge golden nugget I took away from it that I now use in so many different ways in my life. She talked about how in life we get really overwhelmed and dissatisfied and try to do so many things at once, and have our focus in so many different places all the time. If you know me at all this is like the state of being I naturally live in. If you are just now finding me and starting to get to know me. Take a look at my site and you will see I have my hands in a lot of things and I often hear that people are inspired by my and admire me for how much I get done. I often hear how they don’t know how I get done what I get done and how I am involved in so many different things.

And than she talked about having pillars in life, our goals, and the things we focus our minds and energy on. And how in life she had learned that no matter how hard she tried to have more she could only ever realistically focus on three at a time. That only three areas or things of your life will you be able to focus your attention on and actually bring to fruition to it’s fullest and how you truly intend to. This really spoke to me. I still want to fight it all the time and do more than 3. So, that is why I can’t set pillars for an entire year but, I do them for each reset, and month typically. So, each month I focus on 3 specific areas of my life.

I also have teachers that have taught about focusing on 1 area at a time and having one pillar or word you focus on. So, pick which one is going to fit best for you or modify it to something different if you want to. I recommend though don’t try to go past 3, every time I do I end up with either a chaotic time period or half manifested intentions.

Reap the benefits

We have talked about why you should do a complete reset, the many benefits of doing one, what should be on your checklist, how to do each thing on that checklist and now it is time for you to go and do one! Take everything that you learned from this post, tailor what you need to and go and create your very own master check list and completely reset your life. You could have it done by this weekend even! The benefits you would get our numerous and honestly I can’t speak to what it does for me personally each and every time I do one. Enjoy alignment, manifestation of your desires and intentions, meeting your goals, having a clean and organized home, and truly living a life worth living you are excited to wake up to and participate in each and every day.

Come join me the first Saturday of January to revolutionize how you set your goals for 2025. Let me show you hand in hand how to create my personal development plan. You will leave with your entire years worth of SMART goals planned, a way to keep yourself accountable, and have a clear path on how you meet every goal you set. https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/4ZKQ6FXMUGGEJ

Have you been feeling stuck, emotionally unstable, missing joy in your life, or having a hard time connecting to yourself and your magic? Do you want to start the new year from a different headspace? I have the answer for you to start out this new year from a place feeling grounded, present, and ready to manifest your dream life. Come join me for this special one time only two day event teaching you how to integrate the practice of Mindfulness to your magic and life!

What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one’s attention to the present moment without judgment. It allows you to move from just existing in life to thriving, get back to wise mind, create a place to heal and grow in, and most important of all, align you with joy while creating a life where you truly thrive! This skill is a core skill in DBT, the therapy that changed my life! To register for this special two day event visit the link below! https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/JY5UBMB2TA27L

Come join me for community, knowledge, and to restore the enchantment of magic in yourself and life today!

Don’t forget to head over to the shop today for eBooks, workshops, resources, and 1:1 services with me!

Facebook
Patreon
Email
Pinterest

About Me : I have been a solitary grey magic practitioner for 15 + years. First and foremost, I consider myself a mystic and seeker of all knowledge. I am dedicated to the restoration, and re-enchantment of Magic in society, across this realm, and in each and every soul I come across in life! I am here to create a container that promotes healing, duality, and raw authenticity. I do this by guiding you on your personal journey to understanding your unique magic and sacred contracts. I facilitate this for you through embracing your shadow, duality and learning to live in energetic balance while not wearing a mask. When you work and learn from me you do so from your “darkness” as much as your “light” and in a way to truly harness and accept it not to just go thru it on the way to your light. But, I teach you how to truly embrace it, work with it, and use it alongside your light as a partner. I hold up a mirror for you to be able to see your authentic reflection looking back. Then have the courage to take the next step and do the uncomfortable but vital inner work to completely remove your mask. By facing all of your past wounds, traumas, and hurts. Allowing you to see both the dark and light within your story and take each chapter and alchemize it into something that is so powerful. your unique internal flame will shine so bright you will always be able to go within and find it on a dark cold night. You will learn how to truly live in duality and energetic balance to allow growth, and alignment with your sacred contracts and purposes. to finally move on and truly let the things that hold you back in this life from healing and manifesting go. To see everything I offer; like personalized shadow work sessions, womb healing, eBooks for you to work through on your own, Tarot sessions for guidance and more! Go to my shop!

© 2025, Modgepodgemystic LLC

Posted on by — 1 Comment

How to Regain Control Of your Life in One Day After Being Overwhelmed

Being overwhelmed is something we all experience at times in our lives. Some much more than others. ( My hand is definitely raised) With the current state of the world and the collective I feel myself and others are hitting their thresholds much quicker than usual or than we would like to be. Feeling overwhelmed has unwanted side effects and consequences for everyone us even though it may look different. I know for myself it may even look different from day to day.

Usually though when I am overwhelmed I get very snippy with my husband, and even passive aggressive. I have much lower patience with my son and end up not following my parenting philosophy when he is struggling and I make it worse. I will cancel things I had planned and avoid contact with others.

And if it gets bad enough I will start to avoid everything. I won’t do anything and will cancel everything. I will dissociate from myself and reality and in some of the worst cases another personality takes complete control of me for awhile and depending on which one, it can have even worse consequences than just being overwhelmed.

So, what can we do about?

I said we all experience it at times so we can’t avoid it. It will happen no matter what your best intentions are, how organized you are, or how well you maintain boundaries. This will happen no matter what simply because we are humans and living life and life is overwhelming at times and so are other humans. So, it’s unavoidable. But, even with that being true there are things we can do both before it happens to prepare and things we can do when it’s happening.

Before it happens

Before we ever even get overwhelmed and start to spiral we can have one of my favorite DBT skills created and on hand for us to use when this happens, called the cope ahead plan.

What is a cope ahead plan?

It is exactly like it sounds. It is a plan you create before a situation happens for how you will cope effectively if/when it does happen. In other words this is your cheat sheet/ to do list you pull out that tells you what to do when your emotions may be making it difficult to problem solve, cope, or be in wise mind.

Another benefit to creating one of these plans is the sense of ease and confidence it gives you that allows you to stop ruminating about things that haven’t happened yet. As someone with OCD I use these plans to even help me break free from routines that get triggered unintentionally. I even use these to make me able to be around other people especially family.

So, how do you create one?

First thing you do is DESCRIBE. You describe the situation that is likely to happen get very detailed about the situation. You check the facts with what you are describing and make sure you are being justified with your description and not letting emotions influences the description but, do note what emotions you are feeling

Second, DECDE what problem solving or coping skills you want to use for this specific situation. What skills will assist you the best with the specific feelings this situation is making you feel. Be detailed!

Third, IMAGINE THE SITUATION in your mind as vividly as possible. Imagine and immerse yourself in the situation as if it is happening now in the present.

Fourth, REHEARSE IN YOUR MIND COPING EFFECTIVELY. This one is the most important part of the skill and the part I feel most forget, myself included at times. When it says rehearse it means rehearse. You fully act out your actions, you say the words you want to say, you respond emotional the way you want to respond, you rehearse every part of what you coping effectively will look and feel like to you. You do this as many times as you need to. Until you feel prepared and any anxiety or unwanted feelings dissipate.

Fifth, PRACTICE RELAXATION AFTER REHEARSING. It is exactly what is says. Go and do something relaxing to bring your emotions back to wise mind after rehearsing.

After doing all those steps you now have a cope ahead plan. I recommend writing out this plan on a sheet of paper especially what you want to say. It makes rehearsing it easier to do and you can come back to it over and over again if its a situation you have to cope ahead for often in your life.

So, what skills for coping should you put in your cope ahead plan?

Every single cope ahead plan will look different for each person and situation but, let me give you some ideas of what can go in your cope ahead plan for when you are just feeling overwhelmed with life, you have been down, off track, and avoiding things/events/others. The list I will go over below is not all inclusive and some things may not work for you change it up to fit your needs.

1. Get ready for the day

When I am overwhelmed in life whether it be due to metal health, a busy schedule or just life being life one of the first things to go for me is personal hygiene. I don’t shower for days, brush my teeth, my hair ends up in a ponytail nonstop, and I only change my clothes if they get wet from doing the dishes or something. So, for me to get back any sense of control and joy I force myself into the shower, I put clothes on that make me feel joy not just simply comfortable, I brush my teeth, do my hair and anything else I haven’t done in awhile. Every time I always surprise myself by how much more rejuvenated I feel after doing this and how much of the fog lifts.

2. Declutter

Another thing for me that will start to go is cleanliness of my physical space. Even though I am aware for me something not being clean is extreme and most would think it is still perfectly clean. It still affects me, my mental health and my emotions if it isn’t as clean as my brain would like it to be. So, I start to declutter. I tell myself to just focus on decluttering so I don’t swing to far one way and go from avoiding things by doing nothing to avoiding things by distraction and doing way to much. That just creates a different type of overwhelm to now be coping with. So, be careful and mindful of that.

3. Get outside

Even if it is just for 1 minute step outside in some way. I know that it isn’t always ideal or safe to do. I live in Minnesota and sometimes it’s just too damn cold to go outside and it hurts. Not only because I am a witch and pagan so, for me it’s spiritual and religious self care but, there is actual science behind it! When we go outside and make contact with the earth we get an influx in energies we need that cause us to reset and cleanse. Plus the fresh air in our lungs is invigorating and gives you more energy as well.

4. Build mastery

What this means is doing something completely that makes you feel like an absolute master at that skill when you are done. Whether it be something like sweeping your kitchen floor, making your bed, washing your hands, writing your grocery list or creating something. Doing this helps you feel self esteem and confidence and reminds your brain what it feels like to accomplish something while reminding you that you can still accomplish things even when feeling unwanted emotions.

5. Organize some part of your life

Whether it be your schedule for the week, your to do list, a meal plan or anything else you need to organize, plan, and schedule some part of your life. Doing this again helps you feel a sense of accomplishment, self esteem, and makes you feel like there is a little less for you to have to worry about and feel overwhelmed over. Doing this can also help you with checking the facts of why you became overwhelmed in the first place.

6. Do some type of self care activity

It does not matter what type of self care you do, physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, etc. you simply just need to do whatever your intuition is calling you to do that is all about taking care of you. It is about recharging your battery. Connecting you to joy. And reigniting your flame of desire.

7. Do a brain dump

This one might not work for everyone it is really going to depend on your brain and your own needs for order and organization. For some doing a brain dump will only overwhelm them more and for others like me it helps keep me realistic and it stops my brain from thinking it is never ending. Seeing it all written down on one page makes my see that there is an end in sight and that it is tangible for me to reach and the sense of overwhelm will subside and a sense of motivation starts to take over.

8. Use the Post it Method

This is a skill one of the DBT therapist taught us in group one day as bonus skill. I modified it for my own use so I will tell you both ways to use this one.

The first one is using to get you to do things. What you do is you grab some sticky notes and a pen and you get yourself in wise mind and you ask yourself what are the top ( however many you choose) things you have been avoiding and procrastinating doing? You write them on a post note and place them somewhere you will have no choice but, to see them to use as motivation to get you to complete the task. Once you do you get to remove the post it note and feel another boost of accomplishment, self esteem, and confidence to further enhance your motivation.

The second one, is using it to restrict how many things you do. This for me was way more important for my OCD. My issue isn’t really not doings things. It’s taking on and doing to many things. So, how I modified this was when it came to getting my posts it I limited the number I was allowed to write. I picked a number and I could only choose that many task to get done and do that day. And when I had completed them all I wasn’t allowed to go and create new ones and add more. If they were gone it meant I had to relax and no longer work on my to do list.

Again, this helps give you that sense of accomplishment and it gives a structure on how you will do it. You also get that visual reinforcement as well that you have a skill to use to cope effectively.

9. Spend some extended time in Wise mind

Everyone has different skills and ways they get themselves into wise mind. If you don’t know what wise mind is; it’s using both your emotional mind and reasonable mind to access the wisdom within you. It’s seeing value and in both your reason and your emotions. It’s bringing your left brain and your right brain together. It’s walking the middle path and existing and thinking in duality.

It’s our goal to be in this state of mind as often as we can be and to try and make most if not all of our decisions from this place so we can live a life worth living. Spending some extended time in this state of mind can help us to check the facts, realign, and be able to move forward in an effective way. So do this however you need to. Again it will look different for all of us whether it’s meditating, using the stone flake on the lake technique, the spiral staircase, or breathing techniques.

Create your Cope ahead plan to fit you and your needs

The list and ideas in this blog post are just the very beginning of the options you have to put in them and it doesn’t even include all of them I use for this specific situation either because, it can change time to time. So, use this as a starting place, experiment and create a cope ahead plan that will best benefit you when you feel overwhelmed. No matter how that looks, by avoiding things, doing to much or something else entirely. Keep that plan in a safe spot and pull out any time you need it remembering you created it just for that moment and feeling to help you.