 You know, whenever somebody asks me how I stay motivated to stay clean and sober, I often can't help but remember the lyrics from Logic Song 1-800-273-8255 where he says, I finally want to be alive. I don't want to die today. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And this is a question that one of my clients actually asked me today in a group session. He said, how do you stay motivated to stay sober? And this is a great question and I wanted to touch on it in this video. So please, please, please, if you know somebody out there struggling to stay clean and sober, please share this video with them because I may give a lot of tips that I use to stay motivated to stay clean and sober. All right, so let's get started. So this is one of the biggest difficulties that a lot of us struggle with when we get clean and sober. Like, what's our motivation? Like, how do we stay motivated? Like, it blows my mind. Like, every day I see how brutal this disease of addiction is. I see people who crawl into my treatment center just completely beaten up, completely broken, just desperate and grateful. Just, oh, thank God, maybe I don't got to live this way anymore. Right? And maybe a week, two weeks later after the withdrawals are kind of gone, you can see that motivation just kind of leave and they're kind of slacking, sitting in the back, laying down, sleeping and stuff like that. And I'm just like, man, like, how are you already losing that motivation to stay clean and sober? But this is something that comes up a lot. So those of you who are just now meeting me, I have been clean and sober since June 23rd, 2012. I got clean on my 27th birthday. So I have a little over five and a half years clean. And like, don't get it twisted. Like, the longer I stay clean, the more I have to stay motivated to stay clean. Because for us addicts, every day that we stay clean, that voice gets a little bit louder in the back of our head that says, you're good now, you're fixed, you can go have one drink, you can go have one pill, you can do one line, right? So like, the longer I stay clean, the more I got to stay motivated. But I really want to talk about, you know, how I stay motivated in early recovery, all right. And like I mentioned in the intro of this video, like, man, like logic, man, I'm going to do a video breaking down the lyrics, the logic song, 1-800-273-8255. Because a lot of it, you know, aside from depression and suicide, you know, a lot of it has to do with addiction and like, man, something happened to me in early recovery where I like those those lyrics that hit me because I'm like, man, I finally want to be alive. I don't want to die anymore. Like, when we're stuck in that insanity of addiction, and all we can think about is where we're going to get the next hit from where we're going to get the next drink from. Like, we were slowly killing ourselves and we often want to die. And something happened in my early recovery. And it didn't happen for maybe about 45 to 60 days where I just I just didn't want to die anymore, man. Like, that's where a lot of my motivation came from. But one of the tips that I often give people when I see them lacking in that motivation and they need that motivation, one thing that helps me out, even to this day, but it helped me out in early recovery, too, is to never forget where I came from. Okay, now this has a lot to do with humility, too, because our ego, our ego is one of the worst enemies towards our recovery. That ego, right? It just keeps telling us who we are and what we've accomplished and how great we are and stuff like that. Like, I often say, I never, ever, ever, ever, ever forget the weak, long cold turkey opiate detox that I did. Okay, like every time I even think, even time I think about getting high again, I never want to forget how miserable that was. So one of the tips I have that I give people is never forget the days or the weeks before you got clean and sober. Never forget that because the ego starts telling us like, oh, you're good now, or it says this, this is one of my favorite ones that the ego tells us, oh, oh, you know, it wasn't that bad. It wasn't, it wasn't that bad. Maybe people were overreacting. Maybe you were overreacting. It wasn't that bad, right? Like, never forget, never forget the days or weeks that led up to you getting clean and sober. Like if you can remember that, you're going to be in a really good spot. Like I joke around with my clients all the time. I'm like, I don't think any of you ended up in treatment because things were going good before you got here. Like nobody just decides to get sober because they were bored. We do this thing because it's often life or death or just because our life has become extremely, extremely unmanageable. In my early recovery, I often said this, I used to say like, I don't have much, but I don't want to lose any of it. And what I meant by that is like, I had nothing. I had no material possessions. And like, you think I'm exaggerating, but I ain't playing with you. When I got clean and sober, like the most valuable thing I had, if you want me to be honest with you, was a freaking oxygen tank. Okay. I was 27 years old, hooked up to an oxygen tank that I had to wheel around with me, like I was a 90 year old dude. That was the most expensive item I owned. Okay. Aside from that, I lost, you know, all of my money, my job, my truck, everything. I got clean and I had about three or four pairs of clothes. Okay. I had a throwaway cell phone, you know, I was begging for money for cigarettes from my mom. Like I had nothing, but I would always say I don't have much, but I don't want to lose any of it. So what I meant by that is that like, I had some peace. I had some serenity. I had some sanity. These are the things that I did not want to let go of over a drink or drug. That was part of my motivation. Like the fact that I could wake up in the morning knowing that I didn't do anything insane the night before was just such a sense of relief. Like it felt so nice knowing that or knowing that I didn't have to lie, cheat or steal from anybody that day. That was just such a weight lifted off my shoulders. And those are things that I do not have when I get higher drunk. I'm constantly hurting the people who care about me the most. But if you want to get honest too, like the other great part about early recovery and even to this day, sometimes I still wake up in the morning and remember this, like, I don't have to worry about the withdrawals, man. I don't got to worry about the shakes from not having any alcohol. I don't got to worry about the aches and pains and the nausea and the vomiting and all the stuff that came from my opiate addiction. I don't got to worry about the come down from cocaine. Like I feel incredible each day. And that is something that helped keep me motivated. That's why I say don't forget where you came from. Don't forget about those days when you were absolutely miserable and the only thing that was going to make your day better was finding the next one. We don't got to live that way anymore. That's part of my motivation. Something that I was telling my clients today, and I'll recommend it to anybody watching this video is every day, every single day in the morning, keep a little journal by your bed or whatever it is, and write down a list, write down a list of five things, five reasons you're staying clean and sober today. Like something that simple. What it does, if you want me to get all into neuroscience and stuff, that is going to start to rewire your neural pathways so you naturally stay motivated. Now I will tell you this with five and a half years clean, I have a lot more to lose. I have a lot more to lose. Like I have my son back in my life, which is the most important thing in the world to me. I also have my beautiful girlfriend. And sometimes I joke with her like what would you do if I relapsed? Like she would leave. You know what I mean? But aside from that, you know, I have the relationships built with my mom, my dad, my son's mom, my friends. These are all things that I would lose. But also one of the other most important things in my life today, one of the most important things in my life today is all the people that I am able to help. And I would lose my ability to help so many people out there if I were to pick up a drink or a drug. So I have so much more to lose today. I tell my clients like if I don't stay humble, if I don't stay on top of my recovery game, like one day they might walk into treatment and say, yo, where's Chris? And somebody says, oh, he's over at the other building detoxing right now because he relapsed. So I got to keep these things in the forefront of my mind. These are the things that constantly keep me motivated. So if you are somebody who is new in recovery, here is a suggestion that I have for you. Build that support group. Build that support group of other men or women who are in your support group. And you know the rules about that. So don't even start playing with me. All right. But bring those to mind me and three of my best friends who I met when I got clean. We are still great friends today. And we all have over five years clean. Some of some of them are coming up on six years. I was like one of the last ones to get clean. But I knew in early recovery that if I were to relapse, I was going to let these guys down. Like we all kind of leaned on each other to help each other stay clean and sober. So I knew that if I were to go take a drink or a drug, I would not be able to be there to support my friends. Okay. So I really, really hope this video helps some of you out there who are struggling to stay motivated to stay clean and sober. I really hope that you take some of these suggestions to heart because this is one of the most crucial parts about staying clean. And it's something that I still have to do five and a half years later. All right. But if you have any questions, make sure you post them in the comments below. I'm more than happy to answer them. And like I mentioned at the beginning of this video, please share this. Please share this with somebody you know who is struggling to stay clean and sober. All right. But anyways, if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you're new here, I'm always making videos that help you out with addiction recovery with your mental health. So make sure you click the little round subscribe button. And to check out some other videos on my channel, click or tap on one of those thumbnails right there. All right. But thanks so much for watching. Figure out a way to stay motivated today and I'll see you next time.