Stefan Neff
The Courage To Be Sober Chapter 14
What I Expected From A Life Without Addictions

What I had hoped for when I stopped drinking and smoking pot was this perfect life. Well, the truth was that I had many choices to make. When I would see others drink I felt left out of the conversation most times. I couldn’t get into the garbled conversation. Everything they said didn’t make sense anymore.
The people I knew had been forgotten from my thoughts. The moment that I found myself talking to strangers in the night I knew that my life was different than before. I was the same person but with different views on the topics, they were talking about. Yes, they were the same I was the same as well but something had been forever altered. What was it that was different?
My brain was receiving something much different from the words that were spoken. I heard negative talk about how bad life was, how this world is all screwed up within the conversation of others around me. The meaning for me was this is who I was, I was a negative naysayer myself because I didn’t need to hear it from the people that were in front of me at any given time. They are me and who I am today and who I was yesterday.
I wanted more out of my life, there must be more than the sum of who I hang around with. I started to feel like an outsider inside the comforts of my core group of friends who loved to drink and smoke pot on a daily basis. I knew that I needed to face the truth. I was open to change though I thought to myself, how do I move forward from the influence I was in. Do I cut off all ties with them or stay in the same environment as if nothing is wrong with the people I hang around with.
I am the same person but with a different outlook on life. I expected more love in my life, people to like me more but that was all in my head. I couldn’t understand at the time that I was seeking those things with no results. How could I get love, success and more money? I needed to change the way I was thinking about life. I lived in a world of nothing for nothing gets you nothing.
I wanted more out of life.
What was my solution for change towards my success and greatness? I said to myself what are you grateful for, what makes you happy in life. The biggest lesson that I learned was to take action for what I wanted and who I was meant to be. There are many aspects of life that would work together in harmony toward my purpose. Those were to make myself happy first so I could create change in my life. The window of opportunity was endless if I would think that I could achieve everything that I wanted in life. I want more freedom to express my true feelings towards people and the world.
This is the reason I am writing this book.
What To Expect From Change
1. More care for yourself
2. Create a love for the people
3. Learn to deal with your feeling
4. Take action much easier
5. Create goal-setting action plans
6. Freedom to do what you enjoy
7. Have more money
8. Create a much better healthy way of living
9. Look at life as half full instead of half-empty
