The festive season is here, and how quickly has 2022 gone by.
I’m reaching out with this short message to encourage you as we head into the final stretch of this year!
Whether you are in your own recovery journey, or maybe you are supporting and encouraging someone else in their journey, this message is just for you!
Make a Quality Decision
One of the foundational principles in recovery is “Making a quality decision”, and anyone who has been on this journey for a while will tell you that making a quality decision is probably one of the toughest things to do, because starting a life without drugs and alcohol seems like an almost impossible mountain to climb. The task ahead looks so daunting that the natural tendency would be to remain the same, because remaining the same comes with no challenge to change!
Breaking the Sound Barrier
The powerful thing about making a quality decision is it’s almost like breaking through the sound barrier. If you’ve seen the movie “The Right Stuff.” It’s the true story about Chuck Yeager who was a US Airforce pilot, and the first man to break the sound barrier. You see him flying the aircraft at extremely high speed, and as he approaches the sound barrier the G-force is so strong that the aircraft begins to shake so violently that the possibility of him blacking out and crashing is the risk he has to take. But once he reaches the sound barrier and breaks through it, the aircraft stabilizes and glides through the air seamlessly with no more vibrations. He is able to pilot the aircraft with ease and his vision becomes clear again.
Reaching the point of making a quality decision can create a lot of turbulence, because it will challenge you in every area of your life. Changing your ways creates pressure, and initially it can seem like you are pushing against an invisible barrier that doesn’t want you succeed! But once your decision is made and you breakthrough the limitations of your past behaviours and your fear of change, you gain a new confidence and self-belief that changing your life is totally possible, and the journey becomes about focusing on rebuilding every area of your life.
Fresh Vision
Once this new vision for life is realized it becomes easier and easier to let go of the past and the dysfunctional behaviours that have created so many problems for you. You realize that life is an exciting adventure, and you begin to value and treasure your recovery. As we come to the end of this year, I want to encourage you to stand resolute on your quality decision, because It’s at this time of year that your quality decision will be tested!
The Christmas holidays are well underway, the festivities have begun, the malls and shopping centres are filled with lights and decorations, and the mood is joyful and exciting! People take leave to spend time with family and friends and it’s during all the festivities and excitement that you will be faced with all sorts of temptations to start drinking or doing drugs again. The best gift you can give yourself this Christmas is to protect your quality decision and your recovery and stay sober at all costs!
Finish Strong
I always encourage people at this time of year to finish strong, because how you finish is how you will start the new year. What’s the point of working hard at your job and your goals and staying focused for eleven months of the year, and then during the last few weeks of the year allowing the wheels to come off just because its holidays. The reality is the festive season is only a few weeks long, and when January comes around the decorations and lights all go back in the box and you start another year. What’s the point of over indulging, over spending, and compromising your sobriety for a few days in December and then having to start all over again and play catch up for another whole year!
Rest with Purpose
My greatest encouragement over the festive season is to reflect on the year that has passed, and get fresh vision for the following year. When you start focusing on the exciting new year that’s about to unfold, you will still have fun while you are resting, because your focus is fuelled by all the exciting new opportunities ahead, and that gives you the motivation to stay sober. It will help you protect your quality decision even when things get festive, because you understand that you have new goals to accomplish, new exciting places to go to, new opportunities to seek, and this motivates you to avoid any sort of compromise at all costs. The vision for your future becomes more important than a temporary few weeks of compromise!
Don’t get me wrong, you must rest and enjoy the festive season, but when you know what you want out of life and what you want to achieve in the new year, you rest with a purpose and a positive expectation for 2023! You realize that the December festivities are temporary, and you refuse to allow the festive mood to steal your future!
Who wants to trade a bright future for a relapse anyway. Definitely not you!
Ps. Recovery is the gift that keeps on giving, because the longer you walk your journey of sobriety the more exciting life becomes for you and your loved ones. There is no greater thing that watching a person break the destructive cycle of addiction, and become the person God created them to be. Give yourself and others the best Christmas gift of all by protecting your quality decision and staying sober!
NB: To learn more about “Making a Quality Decision” click the button below and download my book, Yes You Can Overcome Addiction. Maybe there is someone you know who could benefit from this encouragement during the festive season, and by sending it to them you could help change a life!