I changed my life in a year and now I believe anyone can too.
August 2025: Overweight, addictions, 7 years into college with no end in sight, living in an abusive home, chronic depression and anxiety
August 2026: Down 3 dress sizes, cut all addictions, graduated, moved out, healed relationship with family, still depressed but manageable :)
This is not a once size fits all nor am i writing everything i did simply because i am forgetful.
What worked for me:
- I started one simple habit: showing up to therapy consistently. I found a therapist I liked who had a cheap copay and I focused my life around that one small habit.
- I started with the smallest things I could do that left the biggest impressions. I painted a bathroom. I finally moved the box in the corner of my room. It took months of these small things for things to kick into gear.
- I have analysis paralysis and am an extreme over-thinker. Through therapy, I worked through my thinking process. It sounds horrible, but i started yelling at myself to “shut up” as i moved forward. i wanted to bed rot, to shut away, to give in. It felt like everything was possible and i had the motivation, i was just stuck behind the actual action of doing. (i can speak more to this if anyone wants)
- I learned through my favorite book that I needed to grow my tolerance for discomfort. I shifted my perceptive from “this sucks” to “this sucks on purpose”.
- I didn’t journal, but I would rant to chatgpt and then ask it to find patterns (not diagnosis) in my thinking. I went through honestly about 40 different thinking patterns as I tried shifting my perspective.
- I finally pursued the things worth waking up for. Sure it sucked having a nearly empty account, but I was excited to work to earn money for my new hobbies. and i loved getting to do them.
tldr; if you’re reading this you have motivation and you’re clearly looking for an answer. You have it and you know what to do: so do it.