In an age of doom scrolling, instant delivery, and algorithms designed to keep us clicking, the pull toward immediate gratification has never been stronger. For people living with OCD or anxiety, this is compounded further still: compulsions offer immediate, if temporary, relief, and the brain learns to always reach for them. The habit forms, and before long it is not really a choice at all. Recognising that is where committed action begins.

 

I was working with a highly driven person recently, who at the end of a long and exhausting day, drove to the gym out of habit and routine. They sat in the car park, and with the words of our therapy sessions ringing in their ears, they checked in with themselves. They decided to drive home, put pyjamas on and watch Netflix. On this occasion they decided the gym wasn't the right move for them, and made a conscious, values-guided choice to invest in what they actually needed that evening. Rest. 

 

This was a significant breakthrough, not because going to the gym is generally a bad move for them, but because this person had allowed their values to override their rules. 

 

Committed action is not about being harder on yourself. It is about learning a new more flexible skill of how to choose. Unshackling yourself from the habits and rules life has trained you to think are the only way. 

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OCD and committing to uncertainty

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For people with OCD, committed action has a very specific shape, and it is one that runs directly counter to what OCD demands.

 

OCD is sustained by compulsions: the checking, the reassurance-seeking, the mental reviewing, the avoidance. Each one offers short-term relief, but in doing so adds another log to the fire, keeping the problem burning. The cycle is self-reinforcing, and over time the compulsion becomes less a choice and more a reflex.

 

Committed action in OCD treatment means practising the opposite: tolerating uncertainty, resisting the compulsion, allowing the discomfort to be present without immediately acting to neutralise it. This is not comfortable. It is, at least initially, genuinely hard. But every time someone sits with the discomfort rather than feeding the cycle, they are making a small but real investment in a life not run by OCD.

 

This connects directly to ERP, Exposure and Response Prevention, the gold standard treatment approach for OCD, which at its core is an exercise in committed action and developing emotional acceptance. I will stress here, that for certain OCD types, this will take work and likely need the oversight of a trained professional to help you correctly and safely work through the types of behaviour patterns you may be stuck in. 

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You only need to learn this skill when it counts

 

The other ACT pages on this website talk about the skills that help you notice when you are at a choice point: being present helps you see the fork in the road, defusion stops you being dragged automatically down the familiar path, acceptance lets you feel the pull without being ruled by it. Committed action is training yourself to make different moves.

 

In my own life it means noticing when I am grinding through a week on fumes and choosing rest rather than another hour at the desk. It means playing football in a way that is right for fun and relaxation, rather than my more driven and perfectionistic side. It means opening up to the people close to me at the moments when shutting down would be easier, because I know from experience that closing myself off leads to depressive cycles. These are small choices, made imperfectly, but they accumulate into me navigating life much more skilfully.

 

This is what committed action actually looks like in a real life. No grand gestures or some perfect schedule needed (I'll write about my immense dislike of online influencers telling us we must all wake up and exercise at 5am some other time). It's making yourself more content in life, by learning which choices serve you and which ones don't, consciously, over and over again. 

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Where to start?

The question committed action asks is simple: what is going to serve me and my values now, today, this week, this year, in my life?

 

Here are some questions to sit with, organised by what you might be working on. If you're up for it, don't just read, pick one, and action it. What's the worst that can happen?

 

If you want to invest in something enjoyable:
 

• What have you been putting off because the timing never feels quite right, and what would it look like to book it, arrange it, or begin it this week?

• What did you used to love that you have quietly abandoned? What would it take to do it once, even imperfectly, in the next few days?

• Is there an invitation you have been declining on behalf of your anxiety rather than yourself, and what would saying yes actually cost you?
   

If you want to invest in connection:
 

• Is there someone you have been meaning to reach out to? What is the smallest possible version of that contact you could make today?

• What would it look like to be a little more honest with someone close to you about how you are actually doing and when this week could you do that?

• Is there a relationship quietly suffering because you have been too busy or too withdrawn to show up? What is one thing you could do this week to show up differently?

If you are working on self-compassion:
 

• When something goes wrong this week, what would it look like to respond to yourself the way you might respond to someone you care about and can you commit to trying that just once?

• What is one thing you have done reasonably well lately that you have not yet allowed yourself to acknowledge? Can you find a way to do that today?

• Is there a standard you are holding yourself to that you would never apply to anyone else, and what would it look like to loosen it slightly this week?
   

If you are working with OCD:
 

• What would it look like to slow down the next compulsion rather than stop it entirely, just to notice what is happening, and name it, before you respond?

• Is there something you have been avoiding because OCD has convinced you that you cannot handle it? What would one small, deliberate step toward it look like this week?

• What might you do with the time and energy currently going into compulsions if you began, gradually, to reclaim it, and is there one small way to start that this week?
   

If you are not sure where to start:
 

• Which of your values feels most neglected right now? What is one small action, however imperfect, that would move you even slightly in its direction this week and when, specifically, could you do it?
   

None of these choices need to be perfect. Perfection is a standard nobody meets and a moving target even if they did. What matters is the direction, not the flawlessness of the steps. If something on this page has resonated, that is enough to start with. Pick one thing, however small, and see what happens when you choose from a different place.

 

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