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Live your best life, sober and happy.

Selfish & Self-Centered

 

 

You know I am a believer that everything is the product of a million little things.

Our recovery, our lives, our relationships, our personalities- all of it is the product of a million little things. Just like the micro decisions I always talk about.

Something I stress a lot to my clients is to think of yourself as a thousand piece puzzle. Do you realize how small those pieces are?

Some are bigger than others, but we are made up of a lot of pieces.

When I talk about my past and tell you that I wasn’t very nice and I was selfish and manipulative- those are just a few of my pieces. I was also extremely kind and loving and generous. Those are a few more of my pieces.

One of my pieces is entrepreneur, and one is alcoholic.

I will tell you, my anger piece got much smaller when I got sober and so did my judgmental piece. And with that, other pieces got much bigger.

The pieces we are going to talk about today are the selfish and self-centered pieces.

I’m sure we...

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The Difference Between High Bottom & High Functioning Alcoholic

 

In my day, we went out and bought all the self-help books and vowed to get our lives together and try harder than we’ve ever tried before! And you start a whole life makeover plan and eat better and workout and start journaling every day and you have a whole new commitment to life. 

For about a week. 

Now, you do the same thing, but you hit the internet and podcasts and all the sober people's books. I’m sad I didn’t have all this good stuff when I was struggling and that’s also what fuels me to continue creating a ton of resources and information for you so you can find everything you need, learn at your own pace, and have honesty and knowledge about alcoholism, addiction, and recovery. 

There seems to be this misconception that you have to be one or the other- you either fit in the box of having your shit together or you fit in the box of being an alcoholic. But, the truth is, it is almost always a combination of both. 

We have talked...

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Are You Convincing Yourself You're Not An Alcoholic?

 

Are You Alcoholic? 

When you want to make changes in your life it's easy to fall off track because that’s how we're wired.

Change is hard and changing habits is hard because we are hardwired to stay the same.

One of the things that makes it easier for me is when I have things laid out, super simple, to keep me on track. 

That’s why I make you all of these worksheets and cheat sheets- the road to success is keeping things very simple, and getting consistent. When you can master consistency, that’s when your true power kicks in and you can accomplish anything!

This conversation actually leads me perfectly into today’s topic- there is a saying that floats around all over the internet, and it is powerful:   

 

I have no idea who said it or where it comes from- I’ve seen it hundreds of times over the years and it strikes such a deep chord with me. 

I was never a person in denial. I never tried to convince myself I...

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Feed Your Addiction or Feed Your Recovery

 

Hey sober fam! I'm your Coach, Angela Pugh, here to provide you the support, community, and guidance you need to get sober and live happy.

If you can make a commitment of 10-15 minutes a day, you can change your life in a HUGE way! It sounds too simple, but it's the truth.

Today we're going to talk about the two choices you have every day of your life, you either choose to feed your recovery or feed your addiction.

You know I put a lot of emphasis on all the little tiny decisions we make throughout our day; the micro-decisions. I emphasize this so much because it's all those little tiny decisions you make all day long that create your reality.

The truth

It's one of the silliest mistakes you make; you think that life is about big moments, the day you got the big job, the day you got married or had a baby, the day you decided to get sober and go to your first AA meeting or when you graduated from college.

But the truth is, in order to graduate college, you had to make...

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Get Clear On Your Sober Vision

 

What does it mean to have a vision for your life and sobriety? Does that sound a little too wo-,woo for you? 

Well, I am pretty woo-woo and you may be shocked to hear that most high achievers, rock stars, professional athletes, successful entrepreneurs, one thing we all have in common is that we have a vision for where we are headed. 

You wouldn’t go on a road trip without Google Maps, so why would you live your life without some sort of map to know where you are headed? 

It doesn’t make sense if you ask me. 

One of the things I talk to you about all the time is planning ahead. If you are going to a party or a networking event or a family gathering, make sure you have a plan in place to keep your sobriety and anxiety in check. 

When you quit drinking, it leaves a lot of available time you have to fill, and to protect yourself and STAY sober, you should have a plan for how you will fill that time so you don’t get caught in the moment...

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One Day At A Time?? How About 10 Minutes At A Time!?!

One DAY at a time?? How about 10 MINUTES at a time!?!

I’m your Coach, Angela Pugh. And what we do here is learn how to live a sober and fun alcohol, free life. The whole point of giving up drinking is to live BETTER and be HAPPIER, and I will certainly give you all the insights I have after many years of sobriety, as well as all my mistakes, life lessons, drama, trauma, and everything I have, lol.  It’s an open book around here!

I remember in the beginning

Today, we’re going to talk about something that’s a bit cliché, and we’re going to break it down and get a little deeper into the concept and how to practice it on a daily basis. You hear it all the time, especially for those of us who are 12 steppers, it’s all over the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous,  One day at a time, 

I remember in the beginning of my recovery I didn’t really understand a lot of the clichés in the rooms. There are all of these weird one,...

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It's Not Your Drinking, It's Your Thinking - Part 2

 

What a crazy time we are living in with Coronavirus and I know we are all struggling with the anxiety and fear that comes with all of this uncertainty. And on a funny note  I heard a story the other day about a journalist who was doing a segment on how to trim your own hair because all the hair salons and barbers are closed  so she was doing this piece, standing in her bathroom to show you how to cut your own hair looking in her mirror, not realizing that her husband was in shower in the back part of the bathroom, where the mirror had a perfect view of him in the shower.

And because everyone was watching her, they didn’t notice her completely naked husband in the shower and they continued running the whole piece.

You guys! Can you imagine! How would your partner react if you were sitting at breakfast and you’re like, “Honey, I need to tell you something. I just live recorded you, naked in the shower, for the state of California to see.”

...

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It’s Not Your Drinking, It’s Your Thinking

It’s a daily struggle

You feel like you are never enough. Not only do you have to eliminate alcohol from your life, but you have to learn how to think in a way that is more supportive of your new sober life.

In one of our online recovery meetings the other day one of our members said she knows whatever her first thought is, it’s usually wrong. She said she has come to terms with the fact that when she recognizes her first thought in a situation, she automatically does the opposite. 

It’s so true. I was the same way in the beginning. 

You have heard me tell the story of my early sobriety when someone approached me at a meeting and invited me to a girls dinner with several ladies from AA.

I was about two weeks sober and scared to death. 

I’m an introvert and I had major social anxiety so this was not something in my comfort zone. And when I was new, my anxiety was unbearable.  The only places I wanted to be were home, and my AA...

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A Life Full of Unmanageability

 

 

 

There was a TON of unmanageability in my life. Not only in my drinking life, but well into my sobriety. 

The substance was merely a symptom.

When we put down the drink and the drugs, it doesn’t mean all our problems are solved. You have to keep in mind that the substance was merely a symptom. There is underlying insecurity, anxiety, sadness, low self-esteem, and other struggles that drive us to drink. 

And once you start drinking to numb those feelings you start making poor choices and that affects your self-esteem. Drinking becomes the easy solution when feeling uncomfortable or nervous. And that’s how it traps you. 

Some people have trauma and dysfunction that takes an emotional toll, and others may have mental health struggles that drive them to self-medicate. 

The point is, we can have different journeys, and land in the same place. 

Recovery is the process of healing all those underlying struggles and thought processes,...

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If I Had To Start All Over From Day One

I’m your coach, Angela Pugh- Helping you get that sober life you want. 

What would I do if I was starting sobriety from day one and desperately needed to feel better fast. 

I was walking with my girlfriend the other day and when I say walk I mean an exercise walk, 5 miles, huge inclines, not a leisurely walk.  So we were walking and talking through some business stuff. 

If you guys have seen any of my FB live videos recently you know I have been a bit grumpy. Coronavirus dragging me down, a lot of business stuff going on, employees not working out, trying to figure out next steps and it’s all even more overwhelming now because of the quarantine, we are not working under a normal set of circumstances. 

And I’ve been a grumpy jerk. Finally, I started to come out of it, I got clarity on a few things, I got into action and figured out solutions to some of my struggles and I started to look back over the journey of the last couple of...

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