They say that if you want to be successful, you need to do the same things as successful people. Those individuals who have achieved long-term recovery are a great source of inspiration, but they also act as excellent role models. In Alcoholics Anonymous, they recommend that members ‘stick with the winners’. This is very good advice because if you spend enough time around these achievers you are likely to pick up some useful habits.
Those individuals who have managed to achieve long-term recovery will usually share some things in common. Here are a few of the character traits and behaviours of these people that you may want to copy.
Winners in Recovery Develop Emotional Sobriety
If the only thing you do is to become physically sober, it might not mean that your life improves very much. The reason why you fell into addiction in the first place is likely to have been your emotions, so it is vital that you begin working on these in recovery. The process of doing this is often referred to as developing emotional sobriety – when you have developed it enough, you will begin to experience long periods of serenity.
The way to develop emotional sobriety is to become willing to deal with the challenges that come your way in life. Every time you successfully overcome one of these challenges, you gain a new tool. The goal is to pick up enough effective tools that you reach a stage where you are able to deal with anything that comes your way. This means that you begin to experience a sense of mastery of life and you have control over your feelings – this is the sign that you are developing emotional sobriety.
Successful People in Recovery Have a Positive Outlook
Spending time with people who have achieved long-term recovery is usually enjoyable because these people tend to be very positive. They have developed a deep understanding of how life works and no longer live in fear of what happens next. These individuals understand that the way they look at the world has a huge impact on how they experience it. They remain positive and upbeat because they know that this will keep their life moving in the right direction.
One of the biggest dangers in recovery is known as stinking thinking. This is when people become negative about everything, treating their recovery as if they were serving a prison sentence. These individuals can often be very difficult to be around because it is as if they want to pull everyone else down into their gloominess with them. It is common for toxic individuals like this to be referred to as dry drunks – they are physically sober but in many ways, they carry on as if they were still in the midst of addiction.
Successful People in Recovery Keep Sobriety as their Priority in Life
They say that if we forget the mistakes of the past, we are doomed to repeat them. As time goes by in recovery, it is easy to forget the pain of addiction. The person can begin to take things for granted, and they may even wonder if their addiction problems were that bad at all. Before they know it, they are romancing the drink or drug, which can soon lead them right back into addiction.
Those individuals who have made it into long-term recovery do not take their sobriety for granted. They understand that if they lose this, they are going to lose everything. It is important that you never forget how bad your life was because of addiction. So long as you remain grateful for your recovery, you will never slip back to the way things were.
Successful People in Recovery Are Involved in Some Type of Service
Another thing they say in the Twelve Step groups is that if you want to keep it, you need to give it away. What this means is that getting involved in some type of service or volunteer work strengthens your own recovery – it also reminds you of what you could go back to if you drank or used drugs again. If you belong to a fellowship group, you should find that there are plenty of opportunities for service here. You can also choose to volunteer in the community. Doing this work also boosts your self-esteem and it is a way to give back to the world.
Successful People in Recovery Are Always Improving
If you become stuck in recovery, it will mean that you are at high risk of relapse. The goal is progress and not perfection, but it is important that you are always moving forward in your life. You do not have to worry about fixing everything in your life in a week, but it is important that you continue to chip away at your character flaws over the years in recovery. The benefit of doing this is that you will experience improvements in your life, and each character flaw you remove increases the level of serenity you experience in your life.
