Reflecting on Sober October’s lessons

Welcome back! We made it. Sober October has come and gone. To all of those who participated and made it through to the end, well done! For some, this was an easy win, for others, perhaps not so much. And if you’ve just been following along on the side lines, I hope you’ll consider trying it out next year! Or heck, try a Sober November.

Maybe some you experienced some unexpected difficulties when it came to abstaining and noticed just how dependent you’ve become on your chosen substances or behaviours. I think it’s great to be exposed to things like addictive behaviours and tendencies, especially if you would categorize yourself under the “this challenge wasn’t super easy” category. These insights can be profoundly valuable on your journey of self development due to the potential blind spots that these addictive behaviours can create. We can really fool ourselves into thinking we’re holding our own weight up, but with challenges like these we can realize just how much we’ve been relying on these behaviours to maintain some sense of normalcy.

And it makes sense, we live in a time and culture where it is far too easy to be bombarded by messages that condone, suggest, and even celebrate participating in less-than-optimal behaviours. Within no time, our initial goal of creating optimal internal and external environments to get us where we truly want to be can be totally derailed. We get stuck in loops of behaviours and thoughts that are aimed at satisfying moment-to-moment urges that leave us with little energy to cultivate a real sense of peace and happiness in the long run.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that a lot of life is supposed to be spent focusing on the present moment with an intention to make it as pleasurable and as joy-filled as possible. But that doesn’t mean we should abandon our efforts to structure some form of inspired, authentic future. I like to believe that both states are possible; a joy and peaceful present themed with behaviours that are an investment into our futures. I’ve read and heard many different names that people have given this approach. The most appealing in my opinion is called “The Path”.

Being on The Path is exactly what it sounds like. It isn’t “The Path To Some End”, it’s just “The Path”. Its about finding happiness and gratitude in our ability to behave in ways that will make for a positive, and enjoyable future. The goal is to enjoy the process of building a future where we aren’t attached to the fruits of our labour because we really don’t know how things are going to end up; things can change in drastic ways without any forewarning. But so long as we put one foot in front of the other and enjoy the walk, we are infinitely better off than the alternative; almost assured failure on some level because we didn’t reach our goal according to our preplanned standards, or we actually achieved the goal and still feel as badly as when we started.

Create habits that are conducive for your future goals and momentary enjoyment. Learn to love the process, the mistakes, the slip ups, the successes, and view them as all part of the story of you. Delaying your happiness and ability to enjoy your days for some form of destination, be it an age, date, achievement or otherwise probably isn’t the greatest plan if your true goal is to enjoy life to the fullest.

So enjoy yourself in the meantime, and get crackin’ on those dreams of yours!

See you guys next week,

Our Blue Sky Minds