Making Big Improvements “Be what you are. This is the first - TopicsExpress



          

Making Big Improvements “Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are.” – Julius Charles Hare, English theological writer (1795-1865) Think big. How often have we been encouraged to adopt this mindset? When we’re in recovery, even small changes can mean big improvement. So, how do we reconcile thinking big with being receptive to any type of positive change? In short, there isn’t a difference. Change that we initiate and work hard to achieve is significant, no matter how large or small the end result may appear. The fact that we actively choose to work toward change is the driving force behind our ultimate success. Even though we may encounter resistance or difficulties along the way, having the determination to continue despite hurdles allows us to grow stronger, more confident and self-assured, more capable and more willing to believe in ourselves. We are who we are at this moment in time. We have grown considerably from who we were just yesterday or several weeks, months or years ago. Although we may have relapsed time and time again, if we get back on the course of sobriety, we have committed to recovery in a way that changes our actions from here on out. We may need to learn and re-learn certain strategies, practice coping skills over and over until we come to some realization of an approach that works for us. We become stronger than we thought we were. We add hope to our repertoire of positive emotions. We begin to believe that we can succeed, that we are able to learn new things and venture outside our comfort zone. We decide that it is ok for us to tackle challenges that we may have shied away from before. We have the support and encouragement of our 12-step sponsor and fellow group members in the rooms of recovery. We have our loving family and close friends who rally around our recovery goals and urge us to stick with them, as well as celebrate with us our successes. When we contemplate making changes, we should always have as long of a list as we can come up with. To be truly flexible, we need short-, medium-, and long-term goals. There should be some that are relatively easy to achieve and that we have a reasonable hope to attain. There should be some that are further off and require some time and effort to accomplish. Beyond that, we need stretch goals. These are goals that excite and motivate us to go into areas that are unfamiliar, but desirable, that cause us to seek out and soak up as much knowledge, skill and experience we can avail ourselves of. We need to push beyond what we think we can do in order to find out what we really can do. We know we want to improve. We feel ready to go after change that we initiate. We want to be successful, to be better than we are. And taking that first step is exactly what we need in order to be the person we truly want to be. Remember, it’s up to us to decide our future. And that future begins with taking action today. It isn’t rocket science. It’s not going to be something that we have to wrack our brain over. We just need to adopt the willingness and the desire to change. Start small. Keep moving forward. Every day brings progress that we can see, feel and measure. This is recovery, and it is ours to achieve, one day at a time.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 18:11:52 +0000

Trending Topics



Recently Viewed Topics




© 2015