Recovery Alchemy with Dr. Dallas Bragg
My Story Free Course Meth-Free Blueprint EBook The Aftermeth Podcast Blog
← Back to all posts

The Resolution Trap: How to Build Self-Trust Instead

by Dallas Bragg
Dec 29, 2025
Connect

 

It's December 29th.

You know what's coming.

In three days, millions of people will wake up, hungover or not, and make sweeping declarations about who they're going to become:

"This year, I'm going to the gym five times a week."

"This year, I'm quitting substances for good."

"This year, I'm finally getting my life together."

And you know what else is coming?

February.

That's when the gym membership becomes a guilt tax. When the substances creep back in. When "getting your life together" dissolves into the same patterns you've been running for years.

Here's what nobody wants to admit: New Year's resolutions are designed to fail.

Not because you're weak.

Not because you lack discipline.

But because the entire framework is based on a lie—the lie that transformation happens through arbitrary calendar dates and grand declarations that ignore the reality of how human change actually works.

What really happens each year is that the subconscious is trained to disregard your words.

You lose a little more trust in yourself.

The Problem With Waiting for January 1st

The cultural obsession with New Year's resolutions is another way we are programmed to think and behave. This is why gym memberships and self-help book sales spike. 

We are sheep.

Subscribe to keep reading this post

Subscribe

Already have an account? Log in

Loading...
Building Community Beyond the Grid: Connection Without Compromise
Listen to Podcast    Watch Podcast Here  When I think about my early days in recovery, one of the hardest transitions wasn't giving up crystal—it was giving up the community that came with it. As isolating as active addiction was, there was paradoxically a whole ecosystem built around it. Dealers who knew my name. Buddies I'd see every weekend. A shared language and rituals that made me feel...
Chemsex Recovery: Your Dark Night of the Soul
  Can you remember who you were before you tried meth (or meph or monkey dust)?  I remember me. The man who thought coming out of the closet was the answer to my pain.  The man who imprinted onto every man who showed him attention.  The man who wrapped anger and resentment around him like a heavy coat. The man who despised who he was inside, but pretended to be free. At that point in my life...
The Gifts of Chemsex
  When I think about the men I work with, one of the most common things I hear is, "Dallas, I don't have trauma." They can't pinpoint a single catastrophic event — no abuse, no neglect in the traditional sense. And yet, here they are, deep in chemsex, wondering how they got here. Matthew's story is one of those. He grew up in a loving home in West Virginia with parents who expressed affection,...

Blog

© 2026 Coaching with Dr. Dallas Bragg | Website by LlanoMedia.com

Join The FREE Challenge

Enter your details below to join the challenge.