Originally Posted by Buckley3

I'm just past 26 months. I'd be kidding myself if I tried to claim I have things figured out, but I was thinking this morning while soaking in the sun how remarkable it is that I find myself where I am these days.
Some things you can look forward to if you just take command of yourself day by day and don't drink.
-I save money. And I buy things that last. And I take care of them. No more dishes piled up, no more trashy car, nice clean place and the serenity that comes with it.
I've lost 50 pounds.... and hardly had to work at it. Just eat well, don't consume a crapload of sugar. Don't drink. That's pretty much it. O, and don't rush it. Consistency is the key.
-I've managed to get debt free - $200,000+ in about 2 years. A little at a time. Of course, I made sacrifices - sold my home, downsized, etc.. I've learned that if you are willing to let go and be content with significantly less on the big things you don't have to scrape and claw and pinch on the little things.
-I continue to learn who I am and what I value. And I continue to discover things about how I'd constructed my life over 46 years that don't align at all with who I am and what I value. So I make changes. A little decision here, a big one now and then. The discord and anxiety that used to rule my life are largely now serenity, confidence, and a healthy dose of "I don't give a f***" about anyone else's opinion of what I should be doing and how.
A few things I've learned that, while you focus on staying sober each day, you can muse on in the back of your head. If you let yourself deal with them, let yourself be at peace, let yourself live the way your inner voice is trying to tell you you'll be amazed at what you can do. I promise.
-Sometimes - hell, a lot of times - we let the ones closest to us inhibit our ability to hear our own souls. We assume there are expectations of us. Images we need to live up to. Other versions of ourselves we think others expect us to be. Quit it. Stop being anything other than who you are and stop apologizing for it. Especially to yourself.
-What we say we value is mostly bull****. What we value is in our actions. Seems so simple then right? But the layers of sh** we are able to pile in front of our eyes makes seeing the obvious impossible. Let go. Look around. And quit with the denial and rationalization. Everything you value is right there in your actions... in how you've constructed your life. And you can change it if you want - all of it - but you have to want to and you have to quit bullsh****** yourself.
-Once you taste letting go - of toxicity, of material things, of relationships, of your own mythological expectations - once you taste the freedom of will and the practical freedom of living it provides you'll want it more and more.
Hang in there newbs. Don't take things so seriously. Just don't drink. Let the world do it's own spinning for awhile. Let days that suck suck. Let go.
Best to all-
-B