How To Beat Your Addiction

You will resonate with this one my friend.

Because we all have addictions we struggle with...

Could be food, television, sugar, work, sex, drugs, etc.

Whatever it is, it's something you struggle to get away from.

And I am no exception. In fact, I get addicted to things quite easily.

Some would say that I have an addictive personality, but that's no excuse.

Because oftentimes we become addicted to things that are bad for our health.

And if something is bad for our health, we shouldn't be doing it regularly.

But that's basically the definition of addiction, a thing we depend on.

Unfortunately, dependence often outweighs our health concerns.

And we continue to feed the addiction month after month.

While we keep telling ourselves we'll change one day.

But nothing changes without taking some action.

And that's what I decided to do this year.

Take action to break an addiction.

And no longer depend on it...

Awareness

You can't ignore it forever.

But I know that's easier said than done.

We tend to ignore the addiction for a good reason.

Because it helps us with something that we are struggling with.

For me, it was stress. Something I've talked with you here about in the past.

But what I didn't talk with you about was the addiction that helped me cope with it.

It was the one thing that always helped when the world around me was too much to handle.

I could step away and escape my own racing mind. And I'd live to fight another day.

Unfortunately, I was unaware of the impact this had on my physical health.

On top of that, it wasn't solving the problems I was holding inside.

It only allowed me to escape and remove the pain for a bit.

Which was clearly not the long-term solution I needed.

It was only when I became aware of all the above.

That I was able to move forward to step two.

Which is what we'll get into next...

Acceptance

You can be aware AF.

But you can also be in denial.

And choose to not accept your reality.

That said, acceptance is how you kill your denial.

It is the one thing that will get you to the next crucial step.

And the sooner you are able to accept your addiction, the better.

I was in denial for nearly the past 20 years. The awareness had no real impact.

As I mentioned before, I was well aware that my addiction was not good for my health.

But at the same time, I was not able to accept that it was not good for my health.

Instead, I would trick myself into believing it was good for managing stress.

Well, actually, it did help manage my stress. But what about my health?

Why not find a better way to manage my stress? Or decrease it?

But I didn't want to admit it. Not to you or to myself.

And that was the problem. No acceptance.

It was only when I was able to accept.

That I could take the next step.

And move the needle...

Action

The 3rd and final step.

This is where all the magic happens.

But without having awareness and acceptance.

You will never get to the point where you finally take action.

That said, it's where you need to get if you want to break your addiction.

And you need to have a plan in place of what actions you are going to need to take.

In my case, I built out a 2-month plan that incorporated small important actions.

I knew it was an addiction I couldn't walk away from one day to another.

For some of you, that's all that needs to happen. Mindset change.

But for me, I needed some actionable steps I could follow.

The first action was to remove the familiarity I had.

The second action introduced a look-a-like.

The third, left me with just enough.

And the last action...

Left it behind me forever!

The Lesson

We all have addictions.

Some are not as severe as others are.

But we all have them, or at least the mass majority.

And if you're reading this and thinking you have none at all.

Then I'm sorry to break it to you, but you're not even at step one yet.

And you need to become aware of your own addiction, regardless of its severity.

Unfortunately for me, it was more severe...

I had been using some form of tobacco/nicotine since early high school. Nearly 20 years.

There were many times I attempted to quit before because I had the awareness.

But I never wanted to accept that I needed to make a permanent change.

I would stop for a few days and then go back to my stress reliever.

This time, I was now able to accept it and start taking action.

And it's been nearly six weeks since I last consumed.

All because I took action and followed my plan.

Does this mean I won the 20-year battle?

Who knows...but today I won again.

And I'll take it day by day...

With Love,

Steven Arthur Geoge