Did you know a wealthy businessman on his way to work can pass a beggar in the street begging – and they’re both addicts?
Does it sound a bit far-fetched? Surly the businessman is doing well, unlike the beggar.
The difference is that one is obvious, whilst the other is far more subtle. Both are trying to make their lives better; one via a substance and the other with achievement. There may be some merit in the man going to work but his outcomes should also benefit others (both via the work and also his earnings). The key being; all addictions create an illusion.
I spent many years, even decades thinking I enjoyed every drink. The more I earned the more I drank. It seemed a parody to the illustration of the beggar and the businessman. I seemed to have the best of both worlds.
Learning to live
What if I told you the man in the suit going to work – was me! I also was ‘the man on the street’. My hardworking nature meant I ended up with a beautiful house, wife, children, luxury cars, spare houses (or ‘investments’ as I’d call them) – and also drinking.
I was set free by reading books such as Allen Carr’s’ Easy Way to control alcohol’ or Annie Grace’s ‘This Naked Mind’ – but I’d also read ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. There were too many similarities between books on getting rid of addictions and achieving your goal. They both got you questioning why you did what you did and both required you to have a mentality that you wanted to change.
It was only when I started questioning my own mindset that I questioned ‘why I did what I did’ and if my work or alcohol actually benefited my life. I also discovered that ‘alcoholism’ is 100% about a mindset. The drink is nothing more than a poison with flavour. If you can change your mind then alcoholism doesn’t exist and the illusion is broken.
What you believe becomes your truth
Really? You don’t get ‘nicotine-ism’, ‘heroin-ism’ or ‘money-ism’. I went from drinking 30+ units a day to zero (admittedly over a few years, losing a few phones and nearly my wife and job). But my point is – it all started in the mind and what you believe comes truth.
