You have an addiction. You accept your need some help, and to learn some new skills to get and stay sober. So you just go to drug rehab and 90 days later your life is changed and everything gets better. How I wish that were true. Unfortunately while effort and results are related, you cannot get one without the other, the problem lies in the fact there is not a direct correlation. Nothing along the line of 5 hours of effort equals 2 things new and better in your life. Your drug rehab may have a schedule, but your life may not choose to follow the schedule. You can choose the direction of your life in drug rehab, and you can choose the results you would like with your goals. You cannot however choose when those results arrive. It is the space between effort and the time the desired result arrives that drive most of us bonkers. It is in that space where phrase! s like, "Life isn't fair!" come from.
It is in this space where the negative voice in our heads causes so much damage to ourselves and those we love and care for. Drug rehab is a great place to take on this voice and retrain it. What are some of the ways to deal with the voice? One of them is to examine and judge your efforts, not the results. If you have worked hard and stayed sober in your drug rehab program, simply look at that. When and where your family and friends start to believe in the new you is out of your control.
I am not saying to ignore the result, but to not judge it. If the result is not what you want, do not immediately denigrate your effort. Ask if your effort was focused in the correct direction, and the correct intensity? But do not judge the quality of your effort. Also remind yourself that the number one goal in drug rehab is to change your own behavior, not how the world veiws and rewards that behavior. By controling focus, your control the negative voice, and all the negative things that come with it.
