What got you sober may not keep you sober - Solo episode on motivation in sobriety

Welcome to this short and sweet solo episode with me Brad. I had a few thoughts I wanted to share so what better place than here on the podcast.

If I asked you what was your motivation for getting sober how long would it take before you said yourself?

The whole idea of this episode is my thoughts on:

What got you sober may not keep you sober.

Consequences seem to fade such as impaired driving, hangovers, strained relationships, arrests, physical health  or embarrassing moments. The sting from these consequences can fad over time and that is why I think it is important to always be reevaluating our motivation and our WHY to committing to staying sober. 

So many times you will talk with someone and they are on the top of their sober life game and next week they are back at it again and when you ask what happened the answer is I don’t know.  What happens during these tough times that causes us to abandon ship and return to what we feel will help us out?

 

So the question becomes what brought you into sobriety and is it enough to keep you going on the journey? When the consequences of some actions dry up what will keep us going?

I think a big answer to all of this is we have to develop a love for ourselves. Of course we can being our journey for external reasons but time and time again those tend to fade away. I know easier said than done trust me I know because when I started on this journey I did not feel worthy of a sober life or worthy of love from others or love for myself but I was tired of the pain addiction was causing in my life. The short answer is I was disappointed in what I had become and couldn’t look in the mirror at the shell of a person I was.  We can change people, places and things and those are all a must but Where ever you go there you are. Right? At some point to internal work has to start and that work may never end I know it has not for me.

I lived to escape myself and escaped myself to live.

Also motivation alone may not keep us sober but maybe it can be a tool we can utilize to support the process? Throughout addiction many of us lose hope, hope in ourselves and hope in life being any different but the truth is there is hope in sobriety but it may not be immediate it is something I believe our actions will produce. Working on doing the next right thing time and time again.

 

What keeps me going is I know exactly what my past way of living does to me and I don’t intend to play with fire today.  I also love nothing more than being present in life and being a work in progress.  Nothing truly feels better than waking up knowing I have a chance to make a difference today. Nothing feels better than to wake up with hope because I lived to long without that.

 

So the big question remains what motivates you to stay sober and has it changed from what motivation you to get sober? And if is has not there is nothing wrong with that maybe you added some new things to the list. This is something I take a look at everyday because we can’t stay clean on yesterdays shower.

Send me a message over on instagram @sobermotivation and let me know what your motivation is or send me over an e-mail Brad@bradtmcleod.com

Hope to hear from you soon