3 Keys to Keep Your Recovery Going Strong in 2018

3 Keys to Keep Your Recovery Going Strong in 2018
by Caleb Anderson

Within the last year, you made a personal decision to reject the negative and destructive habits that haunted your past and strive to be a better, healthier person. Looking forward, you want to continue your progress and continue reaching for your goals. Perhaps this isn’t the first time you’ve set your sights on becoming a better person. We all fall short of our goals sometimes, and take a few steps backward when trying to get our lives on the right track. If you’re looking to really make headway in 2018, here are three keys you need to focus on to make the most progress.
 
Learn to Let Go
 
Your first key to gaining the upper hand in 2018 is to come to terms with who you were in the past. Forgiveness is the only way we can begin to heal the heart. If the decisions and behaviors of your past have caused personal heartache for yourself or others, you need to do some serious soul-searching in order to heal. First, we must accept the hurt we caused, and ask ourselves and others for forgiveness. Next, and more importantly, we need to accept our ability to change and move forward from our past mistakes. Doing so will clear the path ahead, and give you the chance to continue your recovery and become a better you.
 
Create New Habits
 
By nature, humans are habitual creatures. This is how we organize and function in our daily lives. Sometimes, we fall into negative habits that can wind up being self-destructive. Those of us who have suffered through addiction are well aware of this fact of life. As you recover from addiction, you should be conscious of your behavior, and you should focus on filling your time with activities that are beneficial to your well-being.
 
Creating new, positive habits is your best defense against falling back into old, destructive ones. Many people in recovery turn to dieting and physical activity as new behaviors where they can focus their energy. Exercises such as jogging, swimming, and yoga come equipped with their own set of goals, and individual motivators. By setting habits that have goals, you always have something to work toward, and the more you commit to your diet and exercise, the greater results you will see over time. Beyond boosting your confidence and self-esteem, diet and exercise will also make you feel better overall, increasing your physical and mental well-being.
 
Don’t Stop Setting Goals
 
Goal setting is one of the most important tenants for many recovery programs. Goals force us to keep looking ahead and striving to reach the next level in our progression of becoming a happier, healthier person. For recovering addicts, continuing onwards is essential to overcoming the negativity of past behaviors. Once completing all of their goals, a problem many goal-setters experience is an extreme emotional high followed by a deep sinking feeling: What’s next?
 
To overcome this feeling, it’s important that you never stop setting goals, and continue reaching to be better. No one is perfect, which means that everyone has room to improve, and thus more goals to set. Your goals don’t all have to be fitness-related either. Strive to be a better employee, shoot for a promotion, and a better pay. Discover a passion and commit yourself to mastering it completely.
 
Looking ahead to 2018, you will likely experience moments of progression and also regression. We all take steps back from time to time, but if your keep these three keys in mind, you’ll never stop moving forward. In the next few weeks, months, and even beyond 2018 you’ll continue to progress in your recovery. When you look back at how far you’ve come after all this time, you will know that the effort and determination was all worthwhile.
 
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