Success begets success....
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 444
Success begets success....
Hi all,
I get so much from this site and these posts.
Those just contemplating sobriety, those returning, those at my particular stage, those beyond and way beyond......all speak to me in powerful ways.
This evening I'm feeling empathy for those struggling to make the first steps toward new lives. For me, the quitting process took far too long (think, years). As I struggled with the "whether or not" I was an alcoholic question I sank further and further into the rabbit hole. The further I sunk the more I found it hard to really even understand what was and was not normal and I lowered the bar on my standards for a meaningful life until there was no bar. Through those many years I quit innumerable times (for less than a day each time) and came right back to it just as many.
Finally and for reasons unclear to me... it took only an accidental stare into the mirror at a bloated, drunk and deeply unhappy person to cause me to launch into the unknown. On that day a few months back I was struck with a realization that I was going to quit and I was going to quit forever.
That days was the culmination of so many sad and drunk days and represented what I think of as my first success. I decided on that day that I was done and I knew in my marrow that the feeling was well-founded and genuine, that I would do what it took to quit.
As the months have passed I have come to find sobriety as the inverse to the Pandora's Box that drinking always opened. These days the Sobriety Box is open and is carefully revealing it's gifts to me as I become acquainted with the good in myself and in life.
Today I was thinking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and how alcoholism renders us incapable of fulfilling even the first step (air/food/drink/shelter/warmth/sex/sleep) with much success and falls far short of the following steps that include Safety, then Love/Belonging, then Esteem and finally Self-Actualization. I'm no expert on this theory and don't even know if it is valid in today's world of psychology but it spoke to me today.
I'm not drinking any longer. I've achieved the most critical thing in my life toward moving up through the hierarchy.
The longer I stay sober the more I see how much good lies ahead and the more I accomplish and realize the easier it is to imagine something beyond that......... success begets success.
I thought I was giving up one of the only things in my life that made life bearable when I quit drinking (as did many of us here) and I'm grateful tonight that I was so incredibly wrong.
If you are just getting started or struggling with your AV.....just press through. There is so much waiting for you.
I'm sorry that I'm a rambling writer..... just felt like getting this down.
A great weekend to each of you.
Jonathan
I get so much from this site and these posts.
Those just contemplating sobriety, those returning, those at my particular stage, those beyond and way beyond......all speak to me in powerful ways.
This evening I'm feeling empathy for those struggling to make the first steps toward new lives. For me, the quitting process took far too long (think, years). As I struggled with the "whether or not" I was an alcoholic question I sank further and further into the rabbit hole. The further I sunk the more I found it hard to really even understand what was and was not normal and I lowered the bar on my standards for a meaningful life until there was no bar. Through those many years I quit innumerable times (for less than a day each time) and came right back to it just as many.
Finally and for reasons unclear to me... it took only an accidental stare into the mirror at a bloated, drunk and deeply unhappy person to cause me to launch into the unknown. On that day a few months back I was struck with a realization that I was going to quit and I was going to quit forever.
That days was the culmination of so many sad and drunk days and represented what I think of as my first success. I decided on that day that I was done and I knew in my marrow that the feeling was well-founded and genuine, that I would do what it took to quit.
As the months have passed I have come to find sobriety as the inverse to the Pandora's Box that drinking always opened. These days the Sobriety Box is open and is carefully revealing it's gifts to me as I become acquainted with the good in myself and in life.
Today I was thinking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and how alcoholism renders us incapable of fulfilling even the first step (air/food/drink/shelter/warmth/sex/sleep) with much success and falls far short of the following steps that include Safety, then Love/Belonging, then Esteem and finally Self-Actualization. I'm no expert on this theory and don't even know if it is valid in today's world of psychology but it spoke to me today.
I'm not drinking any longer. I've achieved the most critical thing in my life toward moving up through the hierarchy.
The longer I stay sober the more I see how much good lies ahead and the more I accomplish and realize the easier it is to imagine something beyond that......... success begets success.
I thought I was giving up one of the only things in my life that made life bearable when I quit drinking (as did many of us here) and I'm grateful tonight that I was so incredibly wrong.
If you are just getting started or struggling with your AV.....just press through. There is so much waiting for you.
I'm sorry that I'm a rambling writer..... just felt like getting this down.
A great weekend to each of you.
Jonathan
You can have reasons, or you can have results, but you can't have both.
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Syracuse, NY
Posts: 1,232
Listen to this OP!
Readers, I'm celebrating 40 days sober today. Already, the bloated, sick person in the mirror is a memory.
My business is booming and I'm making money hand over fist. I'm enjoying new activities with new friends. I'm solving niggling little life problems that have been hanging around far too long.
Stop drinking the poison and you'll be surprised how quickly things start to improve. Especially, in my opinion, if you don't meditate upon the negatives -- there will be a withdrawal process but it's a helluva lot better than the progressive addiction process!!!
My business is booming and I'm making money hand over fist. I'm enjoying new activities with new friends. I'm solving niggling little life problems that have been hanging around far too long.
Stop drinking the poison and you'll be surprised how quickly things start to improve. Especially, in my opinion, if you don't meditate upon the negatives -- there will be a withdrawal process but it's a helluva lot better than the progressive addiction process!!!
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