Staying Focused

You know what's really, really important to building long lasting, stable, maintainable recovery? It's building a life that you love, which is what this little mini series is all about. And in this particular video, we're going to be focusing on finding your why. Developing a life of meaning and purpose that you can love that really brings out all of your best qualities. Let your best self shine through so you can build a life you love. Which sure does make it a lot easier to stay sober. Finding a de sense of meaning and purpose. Now you might be asking yourself, well, why is that so important? I'm gonna give you two really good reasons. The first one is because on those days when it's really, really hard and you're wore out and you want to go back and use, and you just want to say, screw it, I don't care anymore, what is it that's gonna hold your feet to the fire? What is it that's going to hold you solid? What is so important to you that it's gonna hold you in place even on those really hard days? So that's one reason it's really important. And second, it's kind of like a scientific reason, which is when you're living a life of meaning and purpose that you feel really good and even great about, you have really great levels of serotonin, which is your feel good, I'm proud of me chemical, brain chemical and dopamine, which I'm sure you know is also a really feel good chemical. It's responsible for like motivation and drive. When you've got these two brain chemicals in really good balance, you're a lot less prone to addiction. Like all a brain scientific level. So you might be asking yourself, well, how do I do that? How do I find my meaning and purpose? That's a really hard question. In fact, I'm sure a lot of people have spent like their whole lives trying to figure that out. And I don't have the complete answer, but I think I have a couple little hints for you that may help you along the way. A question you can ask yourself that might help you figure this out would be, what could you do? How could you live your life in a way that would literally make you feel like a superhero? That would make you feel awesome about yourself? What does that life look like? Can you picture it? Can you imagine it? Could you even draw it? Because you know what? If you can actually picture it in some detail and draw it, your chances of getting that life actually go way up. There's a super cool TED talk about that. Anyways, back on track. What is it that would make you feel like you are living your best life? Is it building a very giant, big and successful business? Is it making a bazillion dollars? You know what? If it's making a bazillion dollars, that'. Fine. Some of you may be having a judgment when you hear that because you think money is evil. But guess what? Money isn't evil. Money is not the cause of all things evil. In fact, money is the root of all things good. Maybe you want to build a big giant business and make a lot of money because you really want to take care of your family who had to grow up really hard or not had things. Maybe you want to do that because you want to be able to give money to some other kinds of organizations. If what you want to do is build an empire, I'm all for it. Go for it. That is not a bad goal at all. Maybe what you want to do is you want to be the best parent possible, because you know that these little lives that are in your care are so very important. And you know that you're called sort of like your thing in life is to help raise happy, healthy kids. Or maybe you want to give kids a better life than they could have. Your dreams don't have to be about being like the ruler of the universe. It could be more simple. What makes you feel great about you? Maybe you know that deep down inside you have some kind of artistic talent and you have beauty that you're supposed to be bringing to the world. Or you have some kind of musical talent or a talent for writing or for speaking or for motivating other people. I'm a big believer that each of us has a unique set of gifts and talents inside which can lead us to our genius area. Now, you may be wondering what your genius is. You might not have heard me say that before. If you haven't. Basically your genius is if you were sort of graph it out on a graph, and you took your natural talents, skills, and abilities, and you mix that and you find where that meets with your passion, you're gonna find your genius area. Now, sometimes in life, your passion can change, which is totally fine. But your gifts, talents, and skills usually remain pretty steady. So maybe you apply them to this passion, and then you apply them to that passion, whatever. But as long as you're doing that, you're really gonna be happy. Now, it doesn't mean everything goes perfect. It doesn't mean you win every battle, but the whole process of doing it is gonna make you feel awesome. As you can imagine, that makes it a lot easier to stay clean and sober. Maybe your why is you're helping other people to find their sobriety because you know that they have a special set of unique gifts, talents and abilities that only they can offer the world. And it's your job to help those. You know what? I can't on this video sit here and tell you exactly what your why is, but I can tell you that you have one. And I can tell you that if you look deep down inside, you're gonna find that that thing that motivates you, that thing that you could just do for hours and hours. That thing that when you do it, makes you feel great. It's really important to find your why, to identify what is it that is your dream. What is it that's so important to you that that's going to hold you solid on those really hard days. Finding your why and holding on to it tightly is a huge help toward building the life that you love and maintaining and sustaining your recovery. Now, another tool and resource. If you haven't accessed this yet, I really want to encourage you to get access to our 30 day jumpstart program. I've got a link in the description where you can sign up for that for free. And it's just a very short, like 33 to 5 minute video message that comes to your inbox each day. These messages are designed to keep you motivated and help you overcome roadblocks. Because like it or not, they're gonna be some hard days ahead. But if you're prepared and you've got your head on straight, you're gonna sail straight through them. Now, while we're on this topic of building the life that you love, I want you to watch this video.