One Thing

When I first came to recovery I was told that I only had to change ONE thing. Not too bad, right. ONE thing. Who can’t change ONE thing? So, I asked what that ONE thing was and they told me that ONE thing was EVERYTHING!

However, before I would go to that extent, I had to be convinced that the person I was doing it for was worth it. 

When someone comes from the personal place you and I come from, having done the things we have done and harmed the people we have harmed, the way we’ve harmed them, we don’t have a very positive VIEW of who we are.

I was so relieved when I was told that I wasn’t a bad person trying to get better; I was a sick person trying to get well. 

Granted, I or we did some very bad things, but we were under control that made almost all our decisions for us. As it says on page 30 in the Big Book of AA, “We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period, we get worse, NEVER better”.

So, to begin to change my VIEW of me and minimize the negative reinforcement of me, 

• I MUST stop drinking and or using or negative behavior if my addiction isn’t substance-related.
• I MUST begin viewing myself as someone of value
• I MUST begin associating with people who will help reinforce my new direction and My VIEW of me
• I MUST begin working on a program that supports life changes
• I MUST develop a relationship with a power greater than me
• I MUST daily recommit to my new path
• I MUST become accountable to someone who is living the life I want to acquire
• I MUST change old playgrounds and old playmates
• I MUST become grateful for what hasn’t occurred along with the new positive things that are

I labeled these as MUSTS because not doing them leaves us far too vulnerable to relapse. If we more fully understand our addictive condition and what we lost, then relapse should be our motivator to change. The new-found life should be our motivation to stay.

These are just some of the things. Maybe your list is a little different. If what you are doing is working and you are achieving your goal of Viewing Yourself as a person of value, then that’s all I want for you.

I hope this has helped. I hope you continue to listen, subscribe, comment, and share. I hope you join our Recovery Guy Movement. Check out my video segments on Recoveryguy.org and most of all “Keep Coming Back”