Monday, September 19, 2016

What the successful Do

About 25 years back, shortly after getting sober, I had lunch with a business consultant. I wanted to discuss my ideas for starting a halfway house.

And because I'd worked around him for a few years before my addiction took over, I wanted his thoughts on my business model.

He asked me if anyone else was doing what I was thinking of doing. I said of course. There were many others operating recovery programs.

"Then you can do it too," he told me. It was that simple. If someone else could do it so could I.

This memory from 25 years ago came up today while I was at a 12-step meeting. And something the speaker said - I'm not sure what - brought back that memory.

And I realized that's the same thing that happens when we decide to get sober. If someone else can do it, then we can do it.

If we see someone successfully making it in the program we watch them. What do they do that I'm not? Well, they're likely going to meetings. They may have a sponsor. A job. They're following the 12-steps.

So we do what they do. Maybe we ask them questions about the program. How they dealt with the challenges during their years of recovery. Just because they got sober doesn't mean that they didn't face challenges. Learn how they handled them. Mimic them.

If we do what other sober people do, we can stay sober just like they are.