For those of us who love to constantly improve ourselves it's good to know there is no shortage of information on the internet to keep us busy getting healthy. Mentally, and physically. 

In my blog and article research one day I came across this fantastic article on Medium, and decided to share it with my audience. 

If you want to listen to the podcast episode, you'll find a player right above this post 👆, or, you can find it here.

Creating a life you love doesn’t happen overnight.

Unfortunately, we are so wired for instant gratification that when we don’t get instant results we easily fall into complaining about how hard everything is and, usually, give up and stop trying.

But before you can start creating the life of your dreams, you have to get some clarity on what you want your life to look like.

• Who do you want to be?
• How do you want to feel?
• What do you want your work to look like?
• What do you want to do in your free time?
• What type of life do you want to provide f
...

The difference between sobriety and recovery. Not many people think about it in this way, but these two things are not the same.

For me, I had to get sober before I could recover and I think this is true for most people.

Sobriety

Sobriety is stopping the substance.

In twelve steps, it is recommended that you don’t make any major life changes in your first year of sobriety.

It's not because we have some overwhelming desire to control you and your life. It's because in your first year you want your focus and energy to go into NOT DRINKING.  Period.

I’m not talking about changes like changing your toothpaste. But big changes like starting or ending a relationship, a new job, moving to a new city- these changes disrupt your life and routine. They can also create additional stress, anxiety, overwhelm, and general discomfort.

You don't want situations and activities that are going to cause you to have high highs, or low lows. You want to stay even, because highs and lows are going to ...

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 have heard th...

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 about high & low bottoms on this show many t...

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 wasn’t an alcoholic because I don’t really care about the word o...

When you feel bad or feel down and you think nothing is working- that doesn’t mean it’s not working- it’s totally working!

I want you to think about your sobriety and imagine it as an actual bank account- and, at the beginning, because you haven’t made any deposits, it’s totally empty.

Now, your number one job is to make deposits in this account. And look at this like an investment account- it’s not instant gratification, but it’s for your future. And you may be less motivated some days because it doesn’t feel like you are getting great rewards from the work you are putting in- you really do get instant gratification in the way that you are staying sober, but sober, especially in the beginning, doesn’t always feel good. You may be tired a lot, have problems sleeping, your anxiety may be super high- and all these things make it even more challenging to make sure you are making deposits in your sober bank.

We talk a lot about being of service- doing service work which is voluntee...

First things first- I want to give a shoutout and say thank you for all the great reviews!

You probably don’t think too much about reviews, but in podcast world they are super important and for me, personally, it’s so good to get feedback and it really keeps me going to hear from you, so thank you for taking a few minutes to write something, I love that.

And when you hear an episode you enjoy, make sure you share it with someone!

That’s a huge part of the beauty of doing a podcast is it has the ability to reach and help so many people- and as people in recovery, we have to constantly be of service and share resources with one another to help us all get through this journey- so share this episode with a  few people you think would enjoy it, or pick out another favorite you listened to in the past and share it with some people- let’s spread the word and stay sober!

For those of you who don't know, September is national recovery month. So I decided to do a whole month of solo episod...

Do you sometimes feel like you are sabotaging your own sobriety and life? You get some sober time under your belt and start feeling pretty good, then all of a sudden you find yourself drunk again, hating life, wondering how the heck this happened. Self-sabotage is a phrase we hear often, especially as addicts.

In this episode, we’ll talk about the 3 stages of belief with clear examples of what they look like, how to recognize them, and show you how to transition from not believing you can ever live successfully sober and happy, to believing anything is possible for you.

This may not sound like it’s part of the getting sober process, but your beliefs shape your reality. If you don’t truly believe you are capable of living a life without alcohol, then how far will you really make it? If you quit drinking, but are overwhelmed with doubt about staying sober, how long will you stay sober?

These 3 stages of belief are important to recognize in everything we do. Getting honest about wher...