Identifying Our True Purpose.
What are we getting sober for?

Those of us who have been in active addition for years have had one single purpose – to keep our addition going. We’ve gotten up and planned every day around continuing our addiction. That purpose has driven all previous hopes and dreams for our futures away. We’ve become lost in the cycle of using and, so often, have forgotten what we were passionate about and loved before addiction swallowed us whole.

In early recovery, our main purpose is to simply stay sober. That’s a big job and is overwhelming – especially in newfound sobriety. If you’re asking yourself why you’re in treatment or what the point of your life is, learning to stay sober is the answer. Every new addict coming into recovery shares that common purpose. Hold FAST to that first purpose. If we don’t get it right, no secondary life purposes can evolve. Sobriety is the primary purpose.

Finding Our Other Purposes.
What can we do with our newfound sobriety?

Once we have all the tools to remain sober (having a sponsor, going to meetings, working the steps), we are free to find our own individual purposes. We all share the same disease of addiction, but no two of us have the same personality, passions, or journey. What are YOUR dreams?

I spent a long time in residential recovery. In the beginning, I had no idea who I even was. I’d forgotten what I used to love and enjoy. One day, I noticed a bookcase in the house. I looked at the wall filled with books and like a lightning strike, I remembered that I LOVED LITERATURE. I had been sober for 90 days and couldn’t think of one thing I liked to do that whole time. The books on that wall had been in front of me the whole time. It was only when I’d learned to stay sober, and had a desire to remain sober, that I remembered the thing that was most important to me – reading and writing.

So, stay sober. Work the steps. Have patience. You will find who you were or who you are in time. And, when you do, you’ll have another reason to keep fighting for your sobriety.

Did you love to dance, be a part of a team, cook, or be a family member? Whatever the answer. The passions for life that your addiction suppressed will return to you in time. Grab every one of them as if they are a brand new day. They are the keys to your future.

Exercising Patience in Early Recovery.
It will take time for sobriety to lift you up and out of the pain of addiction.

Step Three of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous is:

“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.”

This step is important throughout our recovery. Whether we believe in God or not, it asks us to consider what a higher power’s will for us is. That higher power could be the 12-step meetings you attend. It could be your sponsor. There is but one rule – the higher power must want the very best for you.

Initially, God, or our higher power’s will for us, is to stay sober. That’s it. Just don’t drink and don’t use. Our higher power wants to offer us a better life and a second chance, and all we need do is take it and trust that it will elevate us from the depths of despair that addiction rained down upon us.

Sobriety IS wonderful, but it isn’t our only purpose. We are also meant to be fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, friends, professionals, volunteers, and upstanding members of society. When we continually ask what our higher power’s will for us is, our purpose changes and grows.

You don’t need to know what your purpose will be ten years down the line. You only need trust that it will present itself to you, and that you need to be sober and present to see it. Or, you may know what your purpose is, but have no clue how it will ever come to fruition. This is where we must learn patience.

Finding Your Purpose.
Listen to your heart.

Years ago, I went to work as an accounts payable clerk for a medical laboratory. I am not good with numbers. I didn’t know how to use a ten-key calculator, but I loved medicine. A few months into working there, I realized that there were professional writers in the building. I wanted to be one of them. I lacked the experience and education to dream that big, but I believed writing was part of God’s will for me.

It took years for an opportunity to present itself to me. But, had I never gotten the chance to be a writer for that company, I’d have been ok. Because, I started my own blog. I wrote on my free time, I wrote for free, and I wrote about medicine – because I was going through breast cancer at the time. This is all to say that sometimes, we need to make our own dreams come true. I wanted to be a writer. And, so I wrote. And, I reached people around the globe. So, was God’s will for me to be a hired writer or was it His will for me to simply write? I think God’s will for me was to help others through my writing. Writing is part of my purpose. Imagine, though, had I not stayed sober long enough to see the books that reminded me of my passion for literature and writing in early sobriety. Would I have ever become a writer? I doubt it.

So, your purpose, like mine, may change and evolve. Let it. Be patient. There are days you will be frustrated. There are days you may doubt it, but if you feel the wind pushing you towards something you feel passionate about – and that will lead to goodness – follow it. The rush of feeling that says, “I NEED to write, sing, foster a child, go to church, be a daughter, help a stranger,” is your purpose calling you.

One last word about finding your purpose. Please don’t go it alone. We should always speak to our sponsors about what we believe God’s will for us is. It’s too hard to discern our will from God’s will without direction. You can see from my own story how easy that is. I thought my purpose was to be a paid writer. I WAS WRONG. My purpose was to use my writing to help others. Without sponsorship, I would not see the difference between the two. I would not see where my ego ends and God’s will begins.

Call your sponsor. Get feedback. And flourish like the wonderful, gifted human being that you are.

Are You Ready to Get Sober and Start Living?

Call us at (770) 493-7750 and let us help you break the cycle of addiction and live the life you deserve.