You Must Do The Work for Successful Meth Recovery

Picture walking into a 20-story office building, recognizing that your approaching meeting is on the top floor. You walk into the building and right away search for the elevators. To your shock, and disappointment, some of the elevators show "out of order" signs, and the rest are presently being worked on by a team of repairmen. You ask one of the repairmen how to get up to your meeting on the 20th floor, and he points and says with a shrug, "You'll have to take the stairs." While circumstances exactly like this may not have ever happened to you, metaphorically, it's your life in Meth recovery.

You want to be successful in your recovery, stay clean and sober, and off the killer substance Meth. You want to not only be successful, but find the shortcuts or "elevator" to recovery.

Though you recognize your success in any undertaking, requires some effort, wouldn't you like to make it as painless and easy as possible?

There are no "overnight" successes in recovery!

True recovery success comes from "taking the stairs" and moving toward your goals one step at a time.

As you start to walk up the stairs to your meeting (metaphorically), you realize that while you would have rather had an easier way, there are some advantages to the stairway. You are getting exercise, building your endurance, getting a new viewpoint, creating a new experience, and as you go up the last flight of stairs, you understand the pride that comes from the effort!

All of this is true for the effort you put into life and your Meth recovery. The pains you go through create exactly these same benefits: exercise, endurance, new viewpoint, experience, and pride.

Given the symbol of "success in the stairway," what are the ways you can take the realism of effort and make the most of your effort, improving your likelihood of reaching the top floor as quickly as possible?

There are some ways you can utilize your effort intelligently to make your path to success straighter and more direct -- even if you do have to walk:

• Knowledgeable effort (Find the right path.). A lot of people believe that to generate big results, you must work hard. Effort is required, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Are you doing things the way other successful recovering addicts have done them? Are you taking time to learn the things that will minimize your recovery effort? Make your endeavor more informed, and recovery can be easier.
• Constant effort (Keep going.). Getting into the stairway is great, but you won't reach your destination unless you keep going. In order to be successful in recovery, you must make constant effort. What did you do last week to move toward your meth recovery? What about yesterday? What have you done (or will you do) to have recovery success today?
• Effort viewpoint (Does it have to be overwhelming?). If you always think about your recovery being overwhelming, guess what it will be? (Here's a hint -- it will be overwhelming.) But does recovery have to be overwhelming? Could it be eye opening? Could it be rewarding? Once you get a different viewpoint for effort, you make climbing the steps to your Meth recovery so much easier.
• Joint effort (Why not recover together?). Find others to travel your journey with you. Usually when people feel like a part of something bigger than themselves – they’ll be more disciplined and more effective. Who do you know that could mentor you or work with you or support you? Or, who can you mentor, help, or support? Check out NA meetings.
• Wholehearted effort (Get something out of the trip.). Choose to get something out of the trip up the stairs to your recovery. The fact is the elevator is broken; the walk is real and required. Why not decide to find the positive and get something out of the experience? It goes faster and easier. You know this is true. Make the choice to be more enthusiastic and positive.
  

Yes, effort is absolutely still required, but these are things you can do to make that effort more effective and agreeable.

Success in any area of life, especially Meth recovery, requires effort -- there is no free ride. But how you view and deal with that effort will make all the difference in the speed and ease with which you climb your path to recovery.