“Sometimes, no matter how motivated we are, we can find ourselves stuck in a completely unproductive life pattern. Before you can move forward, you must address the things that may be roadblocking you. “
Today’s post is brought to you by my friend – and incredible human being – the one, the only…
Amber Hollingsworth!
Amber is a Licensed Professional Counselor and nationally certified Master Addiction Counselor (not to mention an extremely caring and amiable person!) She has been a practicing addiction counselor for more than 15 years.
In 2011, she founded Hope For Families Recovery Center, where she and her team help people overcome addictions and put their lives and families back together. She also has an incredible YouTube channel about addiction called Put The Shovel Down that I’d recommend checking out.
So, without further ado… I’ll let Amber take it from here!
Amber: You may find that you continue to make the same bad choices time and time again. Occasionally, this behavior goes on long enough that it turns into an addiction. If that’s the case for you, it’s really important to understand that breaking an addiction requires more than just giving yourself a kick in the butt or pulling yourself up by the bootstraps.
How to know if your productivity is being blocked by an addiction:
- You’ve made multiple promises to yourself or a loved one to stop (or reduce) a particular behavior but have been unsuccessful at consistently maintaining or sticking to it.
- You feel shameful about this pattern, and that shame might be causing you to keep secrets or hide your behavior/choice.
- You feel defensive about the behavior and may even go to great lengths to avoid conversations about it.
- You feel resentful at the people around you for constantly being on your case about it.
- You’ve caused serious damage to an important relationship because of this behavior/choice.
- You’re keeping secrets about the consequences of this behavior or choice. (ie: bad grades, financial problems, work/career problems, legal problems).
- You keep engaging in this behavior over and over again, even though it’s messing up your life.
- You’ve tried multiple different ways to make it better. Sometimes it gets better for a short period of time, but it keeps coming back.
- You keep doing it even though it’s causing consequences for you financially, emotionally, socially, or physically.
- This behavior/choice has changed the way you feel about yourself, compromised your integrity, or is causing you to behave in a way that’s not consistent with your values.
If you are strongly relating to 3 or more of the statements above, then it may be time to take a different approach at productivity.
You’re going to need to stop trying to move forward, and take the time to address the roadblock that’s keeping you stuck. There is no simple life hack that will make an addiction stop. You’ll have to make some significant emotional and logistical changes to overcome addictive behavior, but it’s worth it.
Maintaining an addiction takes a ton of time and mental energy, which doesn’t leave a lot of energy for chasing your dreams. This addiction is keeping you from reaching your maximum potential.
Don’t waste time beating yourself up about the issue, because it’s just not productive.
Shame and guilt usually make addiction worse. It’s time to step away from all the empty promises and negative self-talk and do something PRODUCTIVE about it.
If something is blocking you from realizing your dreams, you owe it to yourself and the people you love to deal with it. Addiction doesn’t play by the normal rules, which is why all the things you’ve been trying aren’t working.
You can overcome addiction, but you’re going to need to approach the situation differently.
If you feel like you’re ready to move past this barrier and become your best self, then let’s get started.
Today is the day!
Don’t wait until tomorrow, you’ll stay stuck forever.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of the day or week.
Now is the time.
Don’t wait for Monday.
You can take your
first step right this very minute.
Not sure what that first step should be???
The first thing you need to do is get yourself an accountability partner. This can be a coach (like Alex!) or a
counselor (like me), or even someone you know personally, who has made the type
of change your trying to make.
The point is to set
your goals in motion and make sure you don’t give up when the going gets hard.
Don’t just keep telling yourself you’re going to stop doing a particular
behavior. Your motivation is going to
ebb and flow, which is why you need something that’s going to hold you accountable
on the tough days.
And, if your addiction happens to be drugs or alcohol, then I’ve got an additional resource for you.
I’m going to give you FREE access to my 30-Day Jump Start program.
The 30-Day Jump Start program is designed to help you stay motivated and help you overcome any challenges that may come your way. It will reshape your thinking and help you make strategic decisions about how to move forward each day.
Every day for the next 30 days, you’ll receive an email with a short (3-5 min) video message, giving you a thought for the day, or a small task to complete. These messages are placed in a specific order and are designed to take you from stuck to successful.
No amount of promises or good intentions will make an addiction go away. It’s going to require specific changes. Over the next 30 days, you are going to transform your life.
Stop being mad at yourself.
You’re not stuck because you don’t care.
You’re not stuck because you’re lazy.
You’re stuck because you’re dealing with a different kind of problem, and it’s going to take a different kind of strategy to fix it!
Just click this link to get signed up and you can get started immediately: https://hopeforfamilies.lpages.co/30-day-jump-start/
P.S. Here’s a sneak peak at what you can expect in the 30 Day Jump Start Program: