Quickly, good news.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,499
Great news Jeff. Really awesome.
This is a brilliant sign to you that the Universe has your back, as they say. Use it to get to sobriety. Sobriety is the real name of the game because that's the foundation on which the whole new life will be built!
This is a brilliant sign to you that the Universe has your back, as they say. Use it to get to sobriety. Sobriety is the real name of the game because that's the foundation on which the whole new life will be built!
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: MN
Posts: 8,704
So this job will not solve all of life's problems, but it will help with many of them. I will be working 2nd shift and its a straight 8 hr shift. I will be able to workout before work. The commute is minimal, like 20 minutes. The job isn't sexy, but I don't care, it pays nicely for what I will be doing and we have a ton of time off. My drinking will cease, I assure you. I will feel alive again, and its been awhile. I've felt like a zombie or dead for too long. Time to get engaged with life once again. I am not dead yet. Still got some goals to achieve and I am working on setting them.
ps. this is solely my opinion, but we need purpose in life. I don't care if that purpose is cleaning out the horse**** from the barn, its has purpose. I used to work at a horse racing track, and some of the proudest and best people I met cleaned horse**** from the barn and fed the horses. It gave them purpose and a reason to get out of bed at 5AM. Its better than drinking the day away. Love all of you.
ps. this is solely my opinion, but we need purpose in life. I don't care if that purpose is cleaning out the horse**** from the barn, its has purpose. I used to work at a horse racing track, and some of the proudest and best people I met cleaned horse**** from the barn and fed the horses. It gave them purpose and a reason to get out of bed at 5AM. Its better than drinking the day away. Love all of you.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: MN
Posts: 8,704
Originally Posted by Dee74 
Sounds good Jeff.
Go for it.
D
Go for it.
D
Canine Welfare Advocate
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 10,962
Originally Posted by thomas11
ps. this is solely my opinion, but we need purpose in life. I don't care if that purpose is cleaning out the horse**** from the barn, its has purpose.
When my dad died, we found an obituary he had written for himself. It read like a job resume. That's the day I sought change in that belief that work was my purpose on earth. Great if you can find that, work with meaning, with purpose.
For me, it's a job. I do it well. But it's not my purpose.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 10,912
Great news, Jeff, congrats! I also do think that we can find a lot of purpose in professional life, at least some people. We spend a lot of time daily with work and it's much better to feel it's something meaningful than just an occupation that pays the bills. But I also think doggonecarl has some very good points. IMO, this is best as a good balance, like most things. Overidentifying with anything is not very constructive and I have a lot of experience with that, too. Loss of a sense of purpose is not a good way to be either, I completely understand that and relate to it because I had periods like that in the past - often this is what people call existential angst or crisis. It sounds like working out and having a job are two quite important things for you and sources of self-esteem - of course being cut off from both creates a huge empty space that you want to fill with substitutes that are available and provide a sense of instant relief for a few hours. But, as you said, hopefully you will be able to completely drop the substitute now that what you find rewarding will be available again. But, as others have said, you will need to work on keeping them, so please don't take it for granted.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Big City
Posts: 3,895
Originally Posted by thomas11
My drinking will cease, I assure you. .
I think you know I'm rooting for you Jeff, like I've said before, you are one of the people who helped me get sober. Permanent sobriety, with no conditions attached - that's what is going to save your life.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: MN
Posts: 8,704
Originally Posted by lessgravity
When? While I am also very happy for you I wonder what's going on with you continuing to drink. You are too experienced and wise to expect good tidings in life to be enough to quit - tragedy and mistake and accident lay around every corner for us all. Will a setback in your job or life have you returning to the bottle? If sobriety required happiness, ease and luck, none of us would ever get sober.
I think you know I'm rooting for you Jeff, like I've said before, you are one of the people who helped me get sober. Permanent sobriety, with no conditions attached - that's what is going to save your life.
I think you know I'm rooting for you Jeff, like I've said before, you are one of the people who helped me get sober. Permanent sobriety, with no conditions attached - that's what is going to save your life.
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 211,445
I wondered about that strange future tense you used too.
Make it now Jeff. Now. today. This minute.
Don't count on this job to magically make you and keep you sober - many of us can share experiences where that did not work - but if you go into the job committed to sobriety and abstinence the responsibility, the routine, and the sense of purpose will help.
Don't think you can juggle a little drinking with a new job either.
You won't make any headway at all on that engaging with life and setting goals stuff until you stop poisoning mind and body.
D
Make it now Jeff. Now. today. This minute.
Don't count on this job to magically make you and keep you sober - many of us can share experiences where that did not work - but if you go into the job committed to sobriety and abstinence the responsibility, the routine, and the sense of purpose will help.
Don't think you can juggle a little drinking with a new job either.
You won't make any headway at all on that engaging with life and setting goals stuff until you stop poisoning mind and body.
D
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: MN
Posts: 8,704
Dee, I have no interest in juggling a full time job and drinking. I have said before drinking is a lot of work. I can "talk" all day and night, but it takes action. And I will do that. I promise. Jeff
EndGame
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,677
Congratulations, Jeff.
I'm very happy for you.
And, of course, I have words of caution that are based on a long history that you've shared here over time.
Although it may give you more options and may make you feel better for as long as it's a novelty for you, getting a decent job doesn't remedy anything else that's brought you to the depths of despair several times along the way. Read your older posts. When you reach out it's often from a place of agony.
The "answer," for those who are looking for such things in life, is never on the outside. That doesn't ever look to change either.
We can either go through life with unanalyzed and biased ideas about who and what we are, how we engage reality and other people, or we can make use of our limited time to discover who we are and what we're capable of accomplishing in our lives. We cannot do both.
For you and others who may carry prejudicial ideas about things like therapy or counseling, it isn't about talking about your problems all the time. If I were seeing a patient who treated therapy in that way, I'd likely end up giving him or her a referral for another therapist after we wasted an appropriate amount of time.
If you (meaning anyone) had a bad experience in therapy, you had a bad experience in therapy. It's about what you (meaning anyone) did/do with that experience and any experience that carries with it the potential for disappointment, frustration, excitement, loss of hope, fulfillment, sadness, and loss. I don't make the rules.
And people who complain about "dredging up the past" as being such a terrible thing? Dredging is about cleaning all the garbage and toxins from the bed of a body of water in order to begin with a fresh start.
Silence, denial, and avoiding helpful people is what keeps us sick. Countering the bad habits and other behaviors that we've accumulated during our drinking careers is what makes us healthy. I'm aware that it can be a difficult job. What else is more important for us to do than to come to know ourselves in the service of living a better life?
It seems as though you've gotten another chance, another opportunity. That can be a very heavy burden for some of us. It's all about what you make of it.
I'm very happy for you.
And, of course, I have words of caution that are based on a long history that you've shared here over time.
Although it may give you more options and may make you feel better for as long as it's a novelty for you, getting a decent job doesn't remedy anything else that's brought you to the depths of despair several times along the way. Read your older posts. When you reach out it's often from a place of agony.
The "answer," for those who are looking for such things in life, is never on the outside. That doesn't ever look to change either.
We can either go through life with unanalyzed and biased ideas about who and what we are, how we engage reality and other people, or we can make use of our limited time to discover who we are and what we're capable of accomplishing in our lives. We cannot do both.
For you and others who may carry prejudicial ideas about things like therapy or counseling, it isn't about talking about your problems all the time. If I were seeing a patient who treated therapy in that way, I'd likely end up giving him or her a referral for another therapist after we wasted an appropriate amount of time.
If you (meaning anyone) had a bad experience in therapy, you had a bad experience in therapy. It's about what you (meaning anyone) did/do with that experience and any experience that carries with it the potential for disappointment, frustration, excitement, loss of hope, fulfillment, sadness, and loss. I don't make the rules.
And people who complain about "dredging up the past" as being such a terrible thing? Dredging is about cleaning all the garbage and toxins from the bed of a body of water in order to begin with a fresh start.
Silence, denial, and avoiding helpful people is what keeps us sick. Countering the bad habits and other behaviors that we've accumulated during our drinking careers is what makes us healthy. I'm aware that it can be a difficult job. What else is more important for us to do than to come to know ourselves in the service of living a better life?
It seems as though you've gotten another chance, another opportunity. That can be a very heavy burden for some of us. It's all about what you make of it.
Life Goes On
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Posts: 6,069
Couldn't agree more with EndGame. in my case, lasting sobriety hinges on paying close attention to my mental state. The long-ingrained thought patterns that interfere with my emotional sobriety predate my alcoholic thinking patterns.
It's only by being vigilantly aware of and addressing those thought patterns that I've been able to remain sober. And for that, I needed the help of a good psychotherapist. It's the hardest work I've ever done, but the payoff is so worth it.
Congratulations on the new job, Jeff. I'm very happy for you and deeply identify with how important work can be.
O
It's only by being vigilantly aware of and addressing those thought patterns that I've been able to remain sober. And for that, I needed the help of a good psychotherapist. It's the hardest work I've ever done, but the payoff is so worth it.
Congratulations on the new job, Jeff. I'm very happy for you and deeply identify with how important work can be.
O
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