Simplify Your Life? Easier Said than Done!
If you are anything like me the phrase Keep It Simple Silly/Stupid irritated the heck out of you. What does that mean? Life is complicated! For goodness sake, tell me how and I’ll do it!
Like most things that came my way, I complicated the issue – I couldn’t even keep “keep it simple” simple. I saw only insurmountable complexity.
Face it, when you come out of years of alcohol or drug abuse your life is a chaotic mess. You have broken relationships, money issues, your career may be teetering, and you feel like a walking corpse. The last thing it feels like is simple.
Yet it is.
Humans need just a few things to survive. They need water, food, shelter, and I believe, human warmth (e.g., love or at least like). Now some of you throw sex in there, and granted that’s important, but that’s more about species survival than surviving the day or week or month.
There is a strange thing that happens when you stop the madness – not just drinking but the wild, unfettered thought processes that go with being an alcoholic. When you stop and sit and focus on the important things, the other stuff is still there, but you begin to recognize your priorities.
#1 – Do not drink today
So much of the complexity of our lives was influenced by drinking. Over time, as we gather days under our belts, the haze slips away and we start to see what is really important. We don’t have to fix everything this minute. We just need to make sure we have food, water, shelter, and some good friends to help us through it.
What seemed like the end of the world to me 20 odd years ago now seems like a little blip on the radar. My hyper-concern was all part of this sort of reptilian brain reaction to life: ohmygodohmygodohmygod was the reaction to any obstacle or upset. I had (and sometimes still have) a very low frustration level. Ask my computer mouse. He’ll tell you it’s true.
There is no question that you likely have some really big things to deal with, but you can deal with them if you stay sober. You won’t fix them today – highly unlikely you’ll fix them in a week or a month – but if you follow a strong program of recovery, you will find a way out of the messes you’ve created. You will make amends. You will create a plan to pay off debt or heal a relationship. You will take one little step today, another next week. Each day those steps accumulate into giant staircases closer and closer to your goal.
So how exactly do you simplify your life? First thing to do is set your main priority and being an absolute despot about it: Do Not Drink Today. It’s simple: your plans, your day, everything then flows from that priority. Accept that you cannot change and fix everything today. Get support from peers in recovery and family who want more than anything for you to be clean and sober.
