Just keep putting one foot in front of the other in recovery. Isn’t that what we often hear in the rooms? But sometimes that just doesn’t seem to cut it, does it? This may be especially true during the early days of our newfound sobriety, but it can also happen when we’re undergoing a particularly rough patch for which we feel completely unprepared.

Here are some thoughts to keep in mind whenever we find ourselves either doubting our ability to remain clean and sober or wonder if we’re up to the task at all. First, it’s important to note that we’re not alone in wondering about our capabilities in recovery. Every single person, man or woman, young or old, and from every walk of life, who has been in recovery has at one time or another, maybe even many times, wondered if they could take one more step. They worried that they didn’t have it in them, or that they’d make the wrong decision, or they were so caught up in what happened in the past that it virtually paralyzed them in the present, preventing them from doing the work they needed to do in recovery.

So, knowing we’re not alone is important. But how do we get past the nagging fears and get down to what’s needed: taking action?

Let’s look at what recovery is, for a moment. This is a lifestyle choice, a decision that we’ve made for whatever our own personal reasons, and we have embarked upon this sobriety journey with our eyes wide open. We knew at the outset that it wouldn’t be all smiles and easy days, that there’d likely be many times when we’d prefer to go back to our old ways of living when things seemed easier. Well, at times like that, we’d do well to remember how hard we worked to get where we are today. It certainly wasn’t easy. It definitely took a lot of hard work. But we knew in our hearts that it was the right thing to do. We made a decision to get clean and sober and challenged ourselves to walk the path of sobriety. We knew it was the best thing for us, and we know it still.

Yet we often harbor doubt. Again, it’s natural to feel a little uncertain at times, but that’s what our 12-step sponsor and fellow group members are for, to remind us why we’re here, why we chose to be sober, and why it’s still in our best interest to continue our work in recovery.

In other words, we have to acknowledge that we want to continue. We have to take the step that’s in front of us and keep on going, because this is the right direction for us to travel. Knowing that we are on the right path will tend to make the challenges we face a little easier to bear. Having the support and encouragement of our sponsor and other group members helps bolster our resolve.

In the fable of the tortoise and the hare, the hare became overconfident and stopped to rest by the side of the road. The tortoise, meanwhile, kept right on plodding along at his slow and measured pace. We know the end of the story. The tortoise made it to the ultimate goal while the hare came up short. While recovery isn’t a race, it is a journey. All we need to keep in mind is that we have to keep on taking the next step and the next step after that to stay on the path.

That’s not only progress, but it’s a record to be justifiably proud of.

Whatever your view of Napoleon Bonaparte may be – if you ever gave it much thought – the fact is that the man was a military genius. Yes, he had his shortcomings, literally, since he was reportedly of small stature. He also was reported to have an inflated sense of self-worth, or, perhaps he was compensating for one or more other perceived deficiencies. Still, we can take some inspiration from his words about victory and winning that which we strive to achieve.

In short, we have to keep at it. We won’t achieve our goals and see the results of all our hard work if we give up in the middle of it or, worse yet, don’t even start. For some of us in recovery, particularly those in early recovery without much experience yet at crafting recovery goals and achieving them, it may seem a daunting task to even think about the future. If we do, we may push it out of our heads as some dark and mysterious place filled with black holes of uncertainty and difficult days. We may even give up before we get started.

Thank goodness for ongoing counseling, the support and encouragement of our loved ones and family members, and our 12 step sponsor and fellow group members. Without our staunch and ever-present support network, we would surely flail about and fail to do much to put in the hard work required for our sobriety.

What happens when we sit on the sidelines of life and do nothing? That’s fairly obvious, isn’t it? We accomplish nothing. We realize no achievements. We obtain no self-satisfaction from having put in the hard work and reaping the reward. We stagnate. We may even relapse and wind back in that dark place of addiction that we fought so hard to climb out of.

But add perseverance to the equation and the picture looks quite a bit different. Sure, we won’t succeed at everything we tackle. Some of our goals may take a little detour here and there as we figure out that they need to be altered to fit better with our newfound sobriety and new avenues that we may wish to pursue. One thing is also certain: If we tackle our recovery plan and one by one work on the goals that we have set aside for ourselves, we will make progress. It cannot be any other way.

Progress doesn’t mean that we’ll achieve certain goals in a straight line. Just as recovery isn’t a straight line path, making headway toward our goals invariably takes some twists and turns. And that isn’t a bad thing. It just takes some getting used to and adopting a different mindset toward goals, the pursuit of them, and the perseverance to keep at it.

Remember the tale of the tortoise and the hare? The hare leaped off on the race and, figuring that he had miles on the slow and plodding tortoise, sat beside the road and got lazy. But the tortoise kept at it, persevering despite the odds and the apparent easy win of the hare. Guess who made it to the finish line first? Yes, it was the tortoise, for his perseverance paid off in the end.

Not that recovery is a race with a finish line, but the point is certainly clear. We can’t give up on our goals, and we have to keep doing the hard work even if we think we deserve to slack off and take a break or we just don’t want to put in the effort. Our perseverance, just like that of the tortoise, will pay off in our unique and individual path of recovery.

How can we reconcile living in the present in recovery and still keeping our focus on our long-term goals? This does sometimes seem to be a contradiction in terms, but if we look at it carefully, it really is more manageable. Here are some thoughts to keep in mind.

Recovery consists of doing day-to-day things that help keep us where we want to be: clean and sober and making progress in our recovery. But we also need to have a long-term strategy, or, more correctly, a strategy for the future that consists of any number of longer-term goals that take some time to achieve.

On any given day, we pay attention to the tasks and activities that we have learned are most conducive to our sobriety and to firming up our foundation in recovery. We learn by trial and error the kinds of things that work best for us in our particular situation and we make adjustments as we go along. We’re still living in the present, yet we also remain centered on or focused on our long-term goal, our future in recovery.

That’s not so hard to comprehend, is it? What if, however, our short-term or day-to-day activities that are recovery-focused come into conflict with what we have as a long-term goal? Maybe we need to re-examine our priorities, talk our concerns over with our 12 Step sponsor and our loved ones or family members. Maybe we are a little confused about what it is that we really do want in our life of recovery. Maybe what we thought we wanted for our future is something that we’ve arbitrarily put down as a goal, but it may not be one that we feel that strongly about or even truly desire.

There is a way out of this kind of dilemma, and it isn’t all that difficult to do. Make some time each month to sit down and look at our recovery plan. Make notes about what we have achieved from our list of short-, medium- and long-term goals. Is there a discrepancy that we can detect? Are we falling short in some, but excelling in others? This may point to a new area of interest, one that may have developed from an unlikely source but that is nevertheless something that we have found exciting and may want to pursue.

Here’s a hint about these little detours. They may be opportunities in disguise. The secret to keeping centered on the horizon is to remain flexible enough to allow for a change of direction along the way. That way, we’re maximizing our strengths and taking advantage of the new avenues that present themselves as we continue to make progress in our recovery.

Remember this, too. There is no one way of recovery, no single path that everyone must follow in order to maintain their sobriety. Recovery is unique to each of us. Our recovery is, after all, absolutely ours to create. And that is the beauty of it as well.

For many of us, maybe even for most of us, looking in the mirror – especially in early recovery – is something we’re not comfortable doing. For one thing, we can’t hide from that image in the mirror. It’s staring right at us and the funny thing is that we often don’t recognize the person we see. Well, maybe it’s not so much funny as disturbing, annoying, shocking, or perplexing, depending on where we are on the path of healing.

Recovery experts – you know, those who dispense advice and make recommendations to help us make our recovery journey go a little smoother – say that we need to be able to accept ourselves and what we’ve done in the past, forgive ourselves for all that we’ve thought and said and done that has caused harm to others, and then be good to ourselves so that we can continue to make progress and grow and learn to live in love and sobriety.

Sort of sounds like Dr. Love’s quote referenced above, doesn’t it? Hey, maybe he was really onto something. All joking aside, it’s hard to have any room inside of us to fill up with new experiences if we lock ourselves away and beat ourselves up mentally about our past. If we’ve closed that door in our mind because it’s chock full of the debris and detritus of our past days of addiction, there’s no way that there’s any room inside for new experiences and new beliefs.

We need to crack open the door and allow the fresh, clean wind of change to air out and blow away all that negative baggage. Like a crew of efficient movers, let all that old stuff that’s been hanging in storage get on the dollies and move on out of there. Then we’ll be able to find room – so much room – for new experiences we create for ourselves in our new life of sobriety.

What if we fear that we’ll make the wrong choices? What if we don’t think we have it in us to follow through on the tough decisions that will undoubtedly need to be made? What if we’ve tried in the past and failed, relapsed one or two or five or ten times? All the more reason to accept that this was who we were then, forgive ourselves for all that we have done, and find that little seed of love for ourselves and allow it to grow and flourish.

Look at others whom we admire and strive to emulate. Take note of some little aspect of his or her demeanor or way of dealing with problems that we can adopt and adapt to our own situation. If we feel comfortable speaking with this individual about how he or she coped with certain challenges, do so. If not, definitely speak with our sponsor about how we’re feeling and ask for support in trying to navigate our way through our current situation.

There is another expression that’s appropriate here: "Love heals all wounds." We can take this a number of different ways, but it all centers on love. And we need to love ourselves before we can truly love others.

It may sound like a song lyric, but to keep on keeping on in recovery is, quite simply, the best strategy we can employ to continue to make progress in our life in sobriety. We certainly don’t stand still in life, nor should we in recovery. The funny thing is, however, that many of us reach a certain plateau, a stage in our life in recovery, where we may feel that we don’t need to do anything else. We’ve reached the goals we’ve set out for ourselves in our recovery plan, or we feel that we’re too old or too sick or just plain satisfied with where we are and we simply don’t want or think it’s necessary to keep on going.

This is a mistake. Not only do we short ourselves on the possibilities ahead, but we also put ourselves in danger of succumbing to the temptations we long ago left. In other words, when we become complacent – okay, lazy – or fail to keep on doing the work of recovery, we may very well find ourselves backsliding. If we slip, it may be a minor misstep, or it could be a major one resulting in relapse. Is this something we really want to risk? Most likely, we would do almost anything to avoid such a situation. That’s all the more reason to keep on doing the work of recovery.

But it’s not the only reason. When we keep on keeping on in recovery, we are all about accepting the challenges and being able to identify opportunities that arise so that we can reach the next level in our learning path. Recovery is about discovery – of ourselves and our capabilities, of finding new hope and restoring or building our self-confidence, of being able to love and be loved, of being happy in our sobriety.

Maybe we have become a little ho-hum in our daily recovery efforts. Where we once diligently attended 12-step meetings, we may have become lax. Maybe we’ve fallen into a routine that has become stale. It may be time to add a little change-up to our routine by going to different group meetings. Maybe we need to take a little trip out of town to find a meeting in another city or while we’re out of town on business or pleasure. Why does this help us keep on keeping on in recovery? For one thing, it shows us that we have a ready network of individuals committed to recovery wherever we are. We can learn something new just be being around new people, listening to what they have to say. We will also likely figure out that recovery may look and feel a bit different because we’ve gotten a new perspective on it – just by being around others with whom we don’t have a long history.

Sometimes we find ourselves closing off our minds when we’re too used to the same people, places and things. We may stop listening, figuring that we’ve heard it all before a million times. We may just be going through the motions and not really paying attention to what’s really important in recovery: doing the work every day.

Recovery is a journey that we keep on keeping on – starting today.