Change Before Motivation – Most alcoholics and drug addicts spend more time trying to get motivated to quit drinking and using than those who actually do something about it. While they are deciding they usually are getting high. That is not how motivation works.
Motivation, especially when it comes to recovery, is hard to apply. Let me explain myself. A person who drinks and uses enough to consider themselves addicted require more than a notion to change. Just as they didn’t wake up one day and decide to become addicted one doesn’t sit on the coach and say they are going to quit.
The addictive mind, when in the middle of its disease, is elusive, deceiving and confused. Although a person says or feels they want to change and get some help it is not that easy. There are forces beyond their control that get them to “put it off” until tomorrow and guess what, tomorrow never comes.
What needs to occur, and strange as it may seem, is the person needs something to happen that will stop them in their tracks. That something needs to have the affect of a 2×4 across the back of the head. It has literally got to cause them to pay attention to what is going on around them rather than getting high to mask what is going on inside of them.
Does that sound strange? Well, when you think about alcoholism or drug addiction think about a disease that tells you that you don’t have it. If that’s the case, and it is, then what can stop a person long enough to consider another direction? The directional change must be 180 degrees. Anything less than that is merely a detour and they have been taking detours for some time now.
Whatever it is that occurs to them and gets them to stop for a moment must be immediately followed with a newfound motivation to go in that other direction. Remember though, going in the other direction creates the motivation not the other way around. Nevertheless, when a person who seemed despaired of ever recovering from their addiction finally realizes it is in the doing before they motivated, then and only then will they be motivated to do more.
The idea of waiting to feel motivated before they do something is an idea started by people who don’t want to do something. The is reality for every one of us. This is especially true to those in the midst of their addiction. We act first and then we will be motivated and that point we will be motivated to do more.
Robert Pardon
Robert is the Recovery Guy. Getting clean and sober on April 25, 1986 has given me the insight and practical skill set to not only stay sober, but to also re-invent myself to the person I always wanted to become. Showing others how to do this is my life goal.
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