In the last couple days Laura and I started watching a new series on Netflix called Rectify and it’s a very interesting story about a man who was in prison for almost 2 decades and DNA subsequently cleared him and now he is out and he’s free and he’s trying to make sense of this world around him. During one of the episodes he is having an imaginary conversation while he is in a coma. As part of the conversation the one thing that rings true is his struggle of finding his way in this life he never imagined having again. Within his struggle of fitting in he makes the statement “I just may be too broken.“ I thought about you and me. I remember feeling so concerned that Recovery would not work for me that I did not get as honest as was required and that led to my relapse. When I came back to the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous April 25, 1986 my sponsor Max told me we were getting on our knees to recite the pray third step prayer. The implication from Max was Right Now. That leads me to today’s podcast entitled Right Now. I was having a conversation with a newly friended person that I am doing some sober and life coaching with. In the course of one of our exchanges, I asked her if she knew how remarkable she was. Her was response was and I quote “I’m working on being a remarkable person. Just don’t feel that way right now.”
As many of you know I am a huge classic rock fan. Back in 1973 I came across this group named Montrose and Sammy Hagar was their lead vocalist played guitar alongside Ronnie. I have been a Red Rocker fan 47 years.
Whenever the topic comes up for discussion regarding Van Halen, as much as I like their entire body of work, the Sammy Years are my most favorite. While with Van Halen, Sammy wrote a song called Right Now. I listened to the song the other night I thought it is the perfect metaphor for what we hope to accomplish in recovery. We come from a place that we want what we want when we want it and sadly enough in our addiction it is driven solely by our gluttony and self-centeredness. Yet it becomes such a part of our emotional and mental DNA that we can only shake so much of it. Fortunately for me, as my example with Max, I know countless people in recovery who believe we could have so much right now. Certain things were going to take us time to change and or accumulate, but there was so much that we could have right now. And when you look at the lyrics to the song of reference Sammy writes “don’t want to wait till tomorrow, why put it off another day, one more walk through problems, built up and stand in our way.”
I have a motto that I have adopted along the way and it is “ sooner is better than later and more is better than less.“ The lyrics go on to say “Right Now, it’s your tomorrow. Right Now, it’s everything. Right Now, catch a magic moment, do it right here and now, it means everything.” It does mean everything because most everything we did have was killing us. I will let you read the remaining lyrics and see what they mean to you. I just know if something is worth doing it is worth doing it right and Right Now.
Three things will help keep us in that Right Now mindset
- Make a list of you want to accomplish
- Set the list out in order
- Start each day with check something off that list
We might not accomplish everything as quick as we like, but we can have success Right Now.
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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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