Winning

Most of us have probably heard-at least once in our lives-this phrase: Stick with the winners. Although the phrase itself is pretty cliche, there is tremendous truth in those words. Tremendous truth. Associating ourselves with people who know how to succeed greatly increases our chances of being successful, too. Winners are easy to find, they are the people who succeed in accomplishing goals and aspire to do better, they are driven and motivated. 

In my life, I've met many people who are winners, people who inspire me to succeed. There are all kinds of winners, too. I've met winners who have inspired me to be a better mother, winners who inspire me to work my ass off, winners who inspire me to fine tune certain skills I have or to pursue my education to a higher degree. For me, there is one kind of specific winner I have started to look for in my life. I'm living in recovery now and because I'm an addict in recovery, I desperately need to keep my recovery first and foremost in my life. If I don't make my recovery the most important thing in my day to day life, I can easily lose everything I have. Recovery has given me everything good I have up to this point and therefore, I owe everything to recovery. Recovery HAS TO BE a very big deal-the biggest-so I look for those who win at recovery.

Those winners are a big part of the reason I'm here today, alive, kicking and recovering. A winner is somebody who really works on their recovery. They are the people who can show up and do the hard work, they work actively with their sponsors, they don't live in the problem, but rather, in the solution and they are always there to reach out hands of help to those who are struggling. The winners stay positive no matter what. That doesn't mean they never go through hard times or experience negative emotions, but when they do, they reach out to others, they share where they are openly and willingly. They stay clean no matter what.

Today I know that I can be a winner. It's all up to me. I just have to show up and do the work that lies nearest to me: the work on myself, work on my recovery and the work that helps others around me. I work on staying in the present, knowing that if I do, I will have all the time and ability in the world to do everything.

Today I know that my misery is completely optional. When I was in active addiction, I was stuck in my misery and I wanted to pull other people into it with me but today, I'm clean and I know that if I'm miserable, it only because I want to be. I have so much to be grateful for and when I focus on that, my misery dissipates. With recovery at the center of my life, anything is possible for me. I can accomplish whatever I set my mind to and I can also get through anything, no matter how difficult it may be.

I love to remind myself that today I have a choice. I may not always embody all the winning traits I wish I had but the fact is, I can always be a winner if I want to be one. So today, it's my choice to win. Today I am clean and I will show up, I will reach out, I will lend my help to somebody who is struggling and I will do the work that lies nearest to me. Today I know that anything is possible, that I can do this. Today, I choose to WIN.