What is your end game in recovery? Why do you continue your daily efforts to get clean and sober? What keeps you heading back to IOP or the rooms on those days when sobriety and life seem so unfair.
So much of recovery is about mindfulness and the ability to stay in the present moment. Our therapist, sponsor, and coach remind us to deal with reality and accept life on life's terms. We are told to stop creating stories, rationalizing, and allowing historical events to influence thoughts and feelings. While all this advice is excellent and critical to our continued recovery, there are days and times when we need that extra motivation to stay the course. We need the stimulus of hope and a vision for a better tomorrow to confirm our efforts in recovery are worth it.
Your end game is nothing more than who you want to be and what you want to do. For example. you might be motivated to remain clean and sober in order to give your son or daughter the loving and supportive parent you never had. It might be career based or linked to finding inner peace and satisfaction. Whatever it is, it must be so powerful that it drives you to continue forward in the darkest of moments yet stay humble when joy and achievement arrive.
Unfortunately, recovery and the conquering of addiction are not awarded after graduating IOP or completing the 12-steps. The unwanted truth about recovery is that there is no finish line. Our addiction does not give up one day and declare us the winner. Our addiction is here to stay, and thus, our recovery must operate under the same premise. Recovery removes us from the merry-go-round of addiction and opens us up to the joys of life. With a properly established end game, we remain focused on where we are going, so those negative thoughts that tell us we can’t do something become powerless. Simply put, your end game and everything it means to you, is the fuel that energizes you to be better every day.
FOR CONSIDERATION: Today, your end game might be to get a place of your own or gain custody of your kids. Living a life in recovery is designed to deliver outcomes like these and much more. Your end game is about challenging yourself to do more and more? Always remember that reaching your goal does not mean you have won, that life will become easy, and your addiction will go away. Celebrate your accomplishments but set your next intension. Continue to take what you have learned and use it to stimulate further growth. Challenge yourself to be better than you ever thought possible. Identify that hope or dream that has always seemed so distant, and then go get it! This is your end game and what life in recovery is all about.
About Choice Recovery
Choice Recovery is an integrated addiction treatment facility offering IOP and other substance abuse services. Choice accepts AHCCCS insurance for intensive outpatient services as well as private insurance. We offer day, evening, and telehealth IOP as well as a weekend group. Our focus is on the whole person, not simply addiction. We believe if we can find the reason an individual chooses to use drugs and alcohol, with therapy and hard work, that individual learn how to live a life that they love!