Setting Values-Based Goals and Taking Committed Action

Using a Post-it note, viewers write down a realistic task they have been putting off and could start within a week or two. Underneath they describe what completing it would bring them, physically, emotionally and socially, and why it matters. On the back they list every obstacle: physical sensations, memories, thoughts, fears, rules, habits and social constraints. Laura then asks them to imagine tearing up the benefits, to show that avoiding the task also means avoiding the good things it would bring. Because the obstacles are predictable, they can be labeled when they appear, followed by a recommitment to the reason for the goal. This is the hexaflex applied as graded exposure, which is why the goal has to be genuinely valuable. The challenge is to take one step in the coming week and notice how hard it is. That experience lets clinicians meet people with pain from a place of knowing rather than reading, and understand the feeling patients leave the clinic with.