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.
Therefore, we must set ourselves on a proven path and follow this path as religiously as we drank alcohol and or used drugs. Without this degree of diligence, we will revert to the destructive path that the least resistance brings to us.
If recovery were hard very few of us would achieve it. I am so grateful the plan of recovery is designed to be simple. I am not assaying it is easy, I am saying it is simple. The simplicity of recovery makes it accessible to and by everyone. I am not a good artist, but if you arrange the dots in the proper sequence I can draw a horse, a person or anything else you place the dots to portray. That is exactly what was done when the 12 Step Plan of Recovery was laid out. It is my experience that those who do not connect the dots and recovery are those who don’t want to connect the dots. I hope the recovery is for you and you decide to connect the dots as they are laid out.
Do you remember when you first came into personal recovery. Do you remember feeling alone, having a feeling of depression, destitute, companionless, solitaire, as if you were standing apart? If you felt this way as so many of us did, then you just described the classic definition of the word lonely
One of the most challenging things for any person of recovery is holidays and the triggers that often accompany them. In the beginning, holidays can be the most challenging obstacle to our personal recovery. This is true whether you are the addict or the Co-dependent. Keep in mind that most addicts, are also adult children of Alcoholics, therefore co-dependent as well. Keeping this in mind, there are things that we can look out for that can help us stay insulated against relapse, while enjoying ourselves in this festive and holiday season. Here are a few of the things that we need to lookout for as we approach this time of year.
Coming from where we come from, many of us are fortunate to be alive, let alone free and most of us in our right mind. So many of us have had new things added to our life and many have had things restored to our life. Both the new things and the old things restored are beyond our comprehension.
One of the things that I have learned in my recovery journey is balancing expectations. I’ve come to learn that expectations can be positive and negative. Expectations can also be fair or unfair. Oftentimes, expectations will get in the way of our external relationships. Expectations that aren’t met can be different to understand and often judged. Therefore, it is better off to balance the expectation with fairness toward others and the uncontrollable. Expectations are best served with understanding.
In this episode, Robert shares his experience, strength, and hope in an AA Speaker Meeting. Robert talks about his 35 years of personal recovery and what he believes others need to follow to attain live long sobriety.
I need to surround myself with people who are going in the same direction that I have decided to go into. As stated, “water seeks its own level.” Maybe you have heard something to the effect of “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Both are true. If I am a person of action who decides to see myself in a positive light, I am more likely to be attracted to others who strive for the same thing.
As I grew in my personal recovery so did my desire to become “normal.” When we consider the word normal and set it side by side with the word sober, they seem to go hand in hand.
Accountability simply means that I am subject to the obligation to report, explain or justify something. It means I am answerable. Once again for things that are outside of me that are part of what I do not who I am this is rather easy to do because it’s not personal. So many of us are answerable or we have an obligation to fulfill a particular commitment or process regarding our work.
If there was anything more valuable than this three-word phase I don’t know what it would be. So many of us come from a place where we have worn out our welcome long before they finally asked us to leave. The last thing anyone would consider to be a logical request would be to ask me to come back.
I was willing to do anything to have what they had and to become what I saw them becoming. Surrender to win was the path I decided. I hope you decide on this path as well.