Motivation is an important aspect of recovery from addiction. Motivation is what leads you to get help in the first place, it’s what keeps you going through the tough early days, and it’s what keeps you working on your recovery years down the road. However, motivation can be fickle. Making good choices is always a struggle between what you want and what you want right now. Good treatment programs often use methods like motivational interviewing to help clients find their own internal drive to get sober and stay sober but what happens months, or years after you leave treatment? Can you maintain your inner drive? Here are some tips for doing just that.
Identify your values.
First, it’s important to identify your core values and stay connected to those values. For example, many people decide to get help for addiction because they realize their substance use is hurting their families. So you might identify “being a good father” as one of your core values and you know that’s incompatible with substance use. Staying connected to your core values can be a source of strength to help you overcome all kinds of challenges in recovery.
Set recovery goals.
Set recovery goals that align with your core values. So, for example, if being a good father is a core value, one goal might be to attend all of your daughter’s basketball games this season. Having goals that align with your values is a way of making those values more concrete. Being a great father is not a goal you can ever achieve but it’s an ideal built on a set of actions that you can achieve. Working towards these goals also reinforces your commitment to your values.
Establish your process.
No matter how good you get at motivating yourself and staying positive, there will always be days when you feel like you just can’t do it. That’s when your momentum can save you. Use the times when you are able to motivate yourself to create positive habits and routines. Go to meetings, exercise, eat healthy, spend time with certain people, and so on. After a while, making healthy decisions is familiar and easy. On the days when you can’t seem to motivate yourself, you’ll probably find it takes too much energy to deviate from your healthy routine.
Stay connected to the right people.
Another way to get you through those days when you can’t motivate yourself is to borrow some motivation from others. We all occasionally need a little help staying positive and believing what we’re doing is worthwhile. Get in the habit of spending time with people who lift you up and bring out your best. They can keep you going when times are tough.
Tree House Recovery of Orange County, California is a premiere men’s addiction treatment facility that uses eight different modalities to help our men become the best versions of themselves they can be. We teach our men that every day of their journey is something to celebrate and that recovery isn’t a sprint– it’s a marathon. To get started with Tree House Recovery, call us today at (855) 202-2138
