There’s a popular quote that goes, “Good habits are hard to form but easy to live with, while bad habits are easy to form, but hard to live with.”
Manifesting self-discipline while recovering from alcohol and drug abuse is an absolute necessity, but you need first to understand that getting rid of the bad habits is one long ride on a rough and bumpy road. Keeping yourself off the temptations requires an intentional appeal driven by the need to be better and do better.
Here are some tips that will help you build on your self-discipline so you could avoid temptations or relapse while in recovery.
1. Identify and Accept Your Weaknesses
Everybody has a weakness in life, and you need to dig deep and be honest with yourself about the things that could easily get you off the path to full recovery. Instead of denying or trying to eliminate these weaknesses, try to be more aware of them and find ways to address them.
For example, if seeing someone smoking makes you develop an urge to smoke, you can resolve to take any action to help you view or regard smoking as an undesirable habit that’s bad for your health. For instance, you can immediately watch a video or read a chapter that reminds you of the negative health effects of smoking. This can help reset your thoughts so you can better control your urge.
2. Develop Easy and Progressive Habits
Fill up your free time with healthy habits that challenge and motivate you to keep improving and doing better. The trick is to set a goal that requires small incremental efforts on a regular basis. This will not only help you develop discipline, but you’ll also understand the fundamentals of constant learning and development. Keep track of your progress and reward yourself for hitting a milestone.
3. Look Ahead
Another critical aspect of building discipline is looking ahead and planning for your everyday activities. This ensures that you are owning your day and are aware of what you’ll be exposing yourself to. For example, if you are meeting up with family or friends and you know that alcohol could be served later in the night, you could give yourself permission to leave before the after-party, etc. By being aware of the things ahead of you, you can figure out what you’re going to do to avoid falling back into old habits. This helps you stay on track and gives you a sense of control over your life. You can also find a way to reward yourself for resisting such temptations.
4. Develop Some Standards
Building on your discipline sometimes requires that you develop some identity that will help you gauge your actions and compare what you want to do/are doing to that identity. For instance, there’s no problem with admitting that you are a reformed alcoholic. Still, you always want to remind yourself that you are now a sober human being who’s focused on getting your life together, so drinking alcohol and hanging out with drinking friends isn’t part of what you do. Keeping up with who you are will help you set some standards for what you should do and what you should avoid.
Seek Help
Manifesting self-discipline in life is a lot of work, and you may find yourself falling short of your standards at some point in time. A rule of thumb is never to beat yourself up; instead, be aware that you’ve failed to honor the promise and be accountable, then pick up from where you went wrong. At the end of the day, all you want to do is keep pushing forward with your new life and resist the temptations that might get you to relapse.
By treating this journey as one of working on yourself, where every step gets you closer to your goals, you’ll have an easier time manifesting self-discipline during recovery.
If you need any help on your path to full recovery, reach out to us via email at contactus@thesydneyretreat.org.au or phone: 02 9171 2920, and we would love to help you make your dreams a reality.
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The Sydney Retreat is a peer led recovery approach that benefits from the lived experience of people in recovery. Not only will you be provided with the tools to stop drinking and using drugs, you will become a part of a community who help one another to get sober and stay sober. If you have a problem with alcohol and or drugs, this is a unique and affordable opportunity that will change the direction of your life. Get help today.