Foundational Principles – Anything worth doing is hard. “Habits.”
If you spend any time in our office, you’ll hear the term: “foundational principles.” Foundational principles, at least how we view them, are the “truths” we’ve agreed upon which guide decision-making here. We use “foundational principles” because life gets complicated. Agreeing upon certain “truths” in times of peace makes it easier to navigate life when circumstances get challenging. And they always do. That’s life.
A good place to start here in the new year with our discussion of foundational principles is “A”: Anything worth doing is hard.
In this season of “New Year’s Resolutions”, let’s review:
Only 25% of people stay committed to their resolutions after 30 days.[1]
Even less – 10% - accomplish their long-term resolutions over the year.[2]
Bleak.
A wide-ranging Yale University study found 85% of people wrestling with SUD relapsed within 12 months of discharge from inpatient settings.[3] This means that only 15% of people who tried to kick the habit were successful after a year.[4]
Notice something interesting from the statistics above? Individuals in recovery have a higher rate of success over the year than the general population setting New Year’s resolutions.
Those of us in recovery are uniquely equipped to follow through on the hard stuff: to become part of the 10% seeing the resolution through the year. There’s a grittiness that comes with recovery. A half-gifted, half-hard-earned moxie.
That’s because we learned – the hard way - anything worth doing is going to be hard. It’s hard to remain in recovery. But it’s harder to live a life in the wake of substance use disorder. It’s hard to make amends. But its harder to live a life navigating the detonated landmines of hurts we’ve caused in relationships.
What’s beautiful about life is this: you get to choose your hard.
As the calendar turns to a new year, remember that you get to choose your hard. And remember that things of value usually cost something – they are hard to accomplish and require something from you. But in the end, it’s worth it.
If you would like support in setting and pursuing those objectives this year, we are here. Give us a call.
If you would like to join our recovery community, to build your own recovery capital, give us a call.
[1] Moniuszko, S. (2024, December 31). “New Year’s resolutions often don’t last. Here’s why they fail and how to keep them, according to an expert.” CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-years-resolutions-tips-why-they-fail/.
[2] Moniuszko, (2024).
[3] Sinha, R. (2013, June 6). New Findings on Biological Factors Predicting Addiction Relapse Vulnerability. National Institute of Health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3674771/. DOI: 10.1007/s11920-011-0224-0.
[4] Sinha, (2013).
