we do recover

RECOVERY LITERATURE

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Tiny HabitsSTARTING A NEW HABIT CAN BE EXCITING,

but to realistically start a new behaviour

and to have it stick, you must start from

a ridiculously easy spot. You must also

have the desire. With desire, a minimal

to moderate amount of motivation and

a ridiculously easy action step, you can

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realistically start a new habit and stick to it.

I started to lift weights by making my

routine of a morning coffee turn into a

new way of working out. I would set the

coffee on the stove, which takes eight

minutes to complete. During those eight

minutes, I was ready to do my three

minutes of exercise. Ridiculously easy.

And it sticks.

A couple of nights ago I started to

increase the amount of exercise I was

doing. That was a mistake or rather a

learning experience. So after realizing

that it caused me to stop exercising by

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having made my habit into something too

difficult, I scaled back to the original three

minute routine. Now I’m back on track.

To start a new behaviour, you have to

make it rediculously easy. There also has

be a trigger, motivation, and desire for a

new outcome.

To StartTO START A NEW HABIT, YOU CAN PIGGY-

back it onto a behaviour you already do

and that will become your new trigger


for your new behaviour. I was already

drinking coffee, so I set starting it in

the morning as my trigger for my three

minutes of exercise. Now when I have a

coffee in the morning I make sure to do

my weights.

When it comes to drugs, when I

have a craving, I have set myself up to

automatically take a deep breath or wait

five minutes. This is possible anywhere

and is easy to implement. When at

home I have it set up so that I read one

sentence from AA Literature, Living Sober if I am having a craving. I thought

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that would be a good new behaviour

for my craving trigger, but today it had

a bad outcome. I was downtown and

had a craving. It just so happened that I

was by the store where I could buy my

drug, I had money, and no commitments

so seeing as it was ridiculously easy to

buy and use my drug, and I was being

impatient and ignoring other methods

of relapse prevention, I did. I would

have read a sentence in Living Sober had

I been at home and made it through the

craving, or even just waiting 5 minutes

and keep on walking. That is why my

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adjustment after that day’s slip is to take

a deep breath and wait five minutes. There

are no ways to mess that up or not have it

at my disposal when I have a craving. I am

sure this will be a new behaviour used to

follow craving and to make it easy to skip

over the using. I will still use the Living Sober trick while at home.

CreateI AM ALSO WRITING THIS BOOK BITE TO MAKE

it so that it is easier to have recovery


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literature at hand. It is not as instant

as a breath or to wait five minutes but

it will take up time when I would be

craving. Super easy, and super accessible.

It’s gotta work! I’ll let you know if it

doesn’t because I’ll be back here revising

a new method.

ReassessSOMETIMES IF YOU TRY STARTING A NEW

habit and it isn’t sticking, you have to

reassess. The trigger stays the same, but

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you have to make the action easier. You

have to make it ridiculously easy. For

example, to exercise, you have to cut

it down to the smallest unit possible:

putting on your workout shoes. By the

time you’ve started that action, the

wheels will be in motion to begin your

behaviour cycle of going to the gym, or

run, or home exercise. Today you might

not take it that far, but at least you

put your gym shoes on. You can take

them off. But remember to put them

on again next time, even if you’re just

going to take them off again. It isn’t

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how big the challenge is, it the fact that

you’re forming a habit. This makes a

big difference. Thinking about it could

be a trigger in itself. If you thought

about the gym, or the benefits of going,

or the drawbacks of not going, it may

help motivate you, but sometimes just

putting the shoes on will get you there.

SimpleIF THE INITIAL ROUTINE IS NOT EASY ENOUGH,

you will not make it, no matter how

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high the motivation. Make your goal

so easy it’s impossible not to do it.

Make sure you have a trigger, which

can be a thought. Take deep breaths.

Do something you enjoy. You can also

blank your mind for just one second,

then focus on blanking your mind for

another second. Focus on your breathing

or just blanking your mind. It works.

I have used this to fall asleep and it is

very effective. If anything here has been

helpful, please pass this on so our future

adults and children can free themselves

from addiction. Thank you.

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RECOVERY LITERATURE