The word on the street is that you’ve messed up. You have crossed some lines you never thought you’d cross. You have stumbled, fallen, relapsed, and stumbled again. Welcome to the Second Chance Club. Let me introduce you to some charter members: Abraham: He pretended his wife was his sister because he didn’t have enough…
Mark Twain is purported to have said, “If you ever have to eat a live frog, it’s best to do so the first thing in the morning. That way you can go through the rest of your day knowing that the hardest task is behind you.” Moving from a bad yesterday to a better tomorrow…
You are a snowflake. Let me explain. Think of yourself as one snowflake. Now, a single snowflake can’t make much impact on the world by itself. But when one fragile snowflake sticks with enough other snowflakes, they can stop traffic. No one ever accomplished anything significant on his own. That is especially true of recovery.…
In the Old Testament, we read the story about Jacob wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-32). At one point, God wounded Jacob’s hip, leaving him with a lingering limp. Jacob was suddenly in a position of helplessness. He would live with that limp for the rest of his life. I can relate. My addiction is my…
Dr. Catherine Cox did a thorough study of 301 of history’s greatest geniuses. She discovered one common denominator among them. All of them recorded their thoughts, feelings, ideas, and insights. Today, we call it journaling. Author Kelsee Bailey suggests five reasons to journal. Journaling reduces stress. It improves immune function. It keeps the memory sharp.…
Lucy Ricardo was one of the funniest TV characters ever. In one episode of I Love Lucy, she told Ricky and Fred, “Ethel and I have decided that you married a television set and not us.” In another episode Lucy said, “Ever since I said ‘I do,’ there are so many things we don’t.” Too…
We can’t talk too much about triggers to addiction. From my work with hundreds of addicts, I have created B.L.A.S.T. Most of us tend to be triggered when we are bored, lonely, angry, stressed, or tired. Let me suggest four ways to avoid or mitigate your triggers. Pray. Recognize the temptation and pray for strength…
There are four steps to progress: (a) saying you’ll do it, (b) doing it incorrectly, (c) explaining why you did it incorrectly, and (d) doing it the right way. Solomon said, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23). Longfellow added, “It takes less time to do a…
Communication is about more than the words we speak. Much more. According to psychologist Albert Mehrabian, when we measure the credibility of another person’s words, we assign 55 percent of the weight to her body language, 38 percent to her tone, and just seven percent to the actual words. That’s not to say that words…
Jeanne Calment’s record is still intact, though Kane Tanaka gave it a good ride. On April 19, Tanaka died at the age of 119. She was the world’s oldest person. But Tanaka fell short of Calment’s record of 122 years, making her the only person verified to have eclipsed the age of 120. Calment lived…