Talk about self defeating logic! Setting goals to become a better person in the new year–even if it’s just one goal–is not something that you owe to the world. Instead, achieving such a goal or resolution is more like a gift to yourself.

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If you are in recovery, you can not afford to stagnate. We must keep growing. We must continue to push ourselves. This is where the major rewards of a life of sobriety really come from.

Use Leverage to Push Yourself

The New Year is an opportunity. Use it as a form of leverage to jump start your life and motivate yourself. Other people around you are going to be making resolutions. Enthusiasm can be contagious. Make a commitment to push yourself into making a positive change of some sort.

You know how good it feels to achieve a high goal that you’ve set for yourself. Don’t be afraid to aim high and set up a reward system for yourself either. This is the time to get motivated!

Prioritize Your Goals

Goals should either

1) Maintain good habits

2) Start new healthy habits

3) Eliminate bad habits

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You don’t have to go nuts and make a list of ten goals for the year or anything (although that would be an admirable course of action). Instead, prioritize your goals and just find one or two that you really want to achieve, then focus on that.

Another great idea is to find 2 goals for the new year, one a positive achievement to aim for and the other a negative habit to eliminate. For example, you might try quitting smoking for the elimination goal and start an exercise plan as a new positive habit.

I know it was easy for me to prioritize when I was still smoking cigarettes. I constantly thought about quitting and wanted to do so very badly. In that case, the choice was obvious. I focused all of my efforts on quitting smoking and didn’t bother myself with setting any additional goals. Just quitting was important enough for me to focus on it exclusively.

Here are some areas you might consider:

* Physical Health
- Nutritional Habits
- Exercise

* Relationships
- Start a new Relationship
- Fix a troubled relationship
- End a negative relationship

* Financial
- Start Investing
- Get a Better Job
- Embrace Sensible Spending Habits

* Spiritual
- Start Meditating
- Work the Steps
- Move towards a Spiritual Experience

A Word of Caution: Don’t Set a Vague Goal

Any goal you set for yourself should be specific enough for you to measure your success. Don’t just say “I’m going to exercise more.” That is practically useless and allows you plenty of wiggle room. A much better goal would be “I’m going to jog at least 15 miles a week” or “I’m going to go to the gym at least 4 times a week.” These are specific and measurable. Much more effective than a vague promise to yourself to do better.

Here’s another idea: tell us your goal in a comment below. Writing it out and posting it on the web will give you just a tiny bit more motivation in holding yourself accountable to follow through with it. Go ahead, tell us what you are shooting for!

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Recommended Reading

• Overcoming Addiction
• Addiction Recovery is about Discovering New Layers of Information
• 5 Ways to Supercharge Your Recovery, Avoid Relapse, and Dominate Your Addiction Over the Holiday Season
• 10 Ways to Embrace Creative Recovery and Take Your Sobriety to the Next Level
• Holistic Addiction Treatment Center

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This can be a dangerous time for recovering alcoholics. There are family gatherings, parties at work, and all sorts of obligations that we’re expected to attend where others might be drinking. Plus, the added stress of the holiday season can be enough to overwhelm just about anyone. Here are ten tips to help you through the holiday season:

1. Use the Buddy System – Going to a holiday party where there is drinking? Take another recovering alcoholic with you. Strength in numbers.

2. Just Say No to Situations You Can’t Handle – Got a holiday party where drinking is involved? You can always just say no to going altogether. Your sobriety is number one.

3. Have an Escape Route – Maybe you’re going to the party where drinking is involved, but you want to have the ability to leave quickly if you get nervous. Have an excuse ready for this. Don’t feel bad about bailing out with a phony excuse–we are talking about potentially saving your life here!

4. Volunteer – Get out of your self and help others. Chair an AA meeting, offer to help clean up, and so on. Always useful for feeling good about yourself.

5. Make Time to Relax – Give yourself a break. Meditate. Take that hot bath. Whatever you can do to cool your jets for awhile. Make the time for yourself. No excuses. Put your sanity first.

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6. Avoid Last-Minute Christmas Shopping – Why let this become an added mountain of stress and anxiety? Get it done early. The stores and malls are a zoo as you get closer to Christmas. Just more stress that you don’t need.

7. Keep the Focus on Gratitude – Ever had a lousy holiday back when you were still drinking? Me too. Be thankful for your current situation. It’s a million times better now that you’re sober.

8. Step it Up – If you network with others in recovery, (such as through the AA fellowship) then step it up over the holidays. Go to more meetings, plan activities with others in recovery, and generally reach out more to others – both to give help and to receive it.

9. Find an Alk-a-thon – These are held at AA clubs on holidays (particularly Christmas and New Years) and are basically an all day gathering for recovering people. There is always a ton of food, non-stop meetings, and sober companionship.

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10. Help Others – This is the big one, the cure-all for anything that ails you. For the recovering alcoholic, working with others can be a huge relief from self obsession. Plus, it’s in the spirit of the season.

Everyone have a safe and happy holiday!

Recommended Reading

• Overcoming Addiction
• Addiction Recovery is about Discovering New Layers of Information
• 5 Ways to Supercharge Your Recovery, Avoid Relapse, and Dominate Your Addiction Over the Holiday Season
• 10 Ways to Embrace Creative Recovery and Take Your Sobriety to the Next Level
• Holistic Addiction Treatment Center

How long a time frame are we talking about here? According to my research, only 16 years.

Here’s the breakdown:

1) Money Spent on Alcohol and Other Drugs

According to this study done by the American Medical Association, alcoholic drinkers account for just under 50 percent of all alcohol purchases. Combined with sales data, this gives us a yearly average of about 4 to 5 thousand dollars per year that an alcoholic spends on alcohol, or about 10 to 15 dollars per day. This is right in line with what I averaged when I was still drinking, by the way, so this estimate seems right on the money to me.

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It is difficult to estimate the additional cost of other drugs consumed along with alcohol. From consuming illicit substances to simply buying Tylenol for hangovers, we will give this a very low estimate of 5 dollars per day. Note that there are some alcoholics who indulge in a variety of other drugs, and there are some who simply stick to alcohol. In spite of the research indicating the prevalence of cross-addiction, this estimate of only 5 dollars per day is indeed quite low.

Total Cost per Year: $7,300 = $5475 (alcohol) + $1825 (other drugs)

2) Costs of Consequences – such as court costs, DWI charges, Lost Work opportunities, Employability, etc.

These consequence costs can include a wide range of opportunities. For example, I personally obtained a college degree after quitting drinking, which will change my earning potential significantly. This would also include the difference between someone who is working a steady job and earning money in recovery versus someone who is still drinking heavily and spending time in jail due to drunk driving charges. Many alcoholics have reached a point of being unemployable altogether. Also included in this category are court costs, lost jobs as a result of legal problems and time spent in jail, and so on.

Remember that even if an alcoholic is managing to hold a steady job in spite of their drinking, they are still missing out on the opportunity cost of getting a better paying position, particularly through more education or training. The “average” alcoholic is not in a position to increase their livelihood in this manner. The total average cost reflects this lost earning potential.

Total Cost per Year: $5000

3) Lost Productivity, Sick Days, and Health Care Costs

Alcoholics call in sick to work more often than others, and also have significantly higher health care costs due to both major diseases, as well as being sick with more common ailments simply due to a compromised immune system.

Total Cost per Year: $5000 (This is a much more conservative estimate than is given by the U.S. Government research)

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4) Potential Life Lost Averages and Value of a Human Life

What is the monetary value of the life lost when a person dies early due to Alcoholism? Before we can answer that question with a dollar amount, we must first determine how much life the average alcoholic loses due to heavy drinking. This government website states that the average alcohol related death results in 30 full years of potential life lost. At first, this number might seem unusually high, but it takes into account a whole range of possible early deaths. Alcohol overdoses, drunk driving accidents, suicides, cirrhosis of the liver, and a number of other possibilities go into this average. By the raw numbers, it seems the toll for heavy drinkers is indeed an average of 30 years of life lost!

Knowing this, how can we determine what the value of those 30 years are?

Researchers at Princeton University have determined that the value of a human life is $1.54 million dollars. If we divide this value by the average human life expectancy of 77 years, we get a value of $20,000 per year.

Now, multiply that $20,000 per year by 30 years of life, and we get $600,000 dollars. That is over half a million dollars down the drain, based on the years of life that an alcoholic will sacrifice. Most people would estimate that the value of their life is greater than $20,000 per year, which is understandable. That makes this a fairly low estimate.

Total Cost per Year: $20,000

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Adding it All Up

Each year, the average alcoholic is sacrificing $37,300 dollars due to their drinking. Investing that money at a modest 5 percent interest will net you your million dollars in only 16 years. I understand that most recovering alcoholics will not be able to invest this money due to other responsibilities, but the point of the exercise remains clear: the cost of addiction is staggering.

I also realize that the money value of potential years of life lost is not a tangible thing that could be invested on a year-to-year basis. However, this should be a mute point, as virtually every person declares the monetary value of one year of their life to be worth much more than a mere $20,000 dollars anyway. The years of happiness and freedom from sobriety will pay dividends far beyond a mere 5 percent return on your drinking money.

The bottom line is that substance abuse is extremely expensive when accumulated over the long term because of these costs:

1) Cost of the actual drugs and alcohol themselves.

2) Cost of the consequences, especially legal and health care costs.

3) Years of potential life lost (a near infinite value by most people’s measure).

4) Opportunity costs (quit going to school, not pursuing a better job, etc.).

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Implications for the Recovering Alcoholic

1) Gratitude – Appreciate the gains you are realizing in recovery – both financially and health-wise. Take joy in your new prosperity. If you are living a sober life in recovery, any amount of money or good health you enjoy is a blessing. Take gratitude in your productivity. Be thankful that you can be of service to others.

2) Recognize the responsibility that you’ve gained by spending your money and life appropriately, instead of selfishly wasting it on chemicals. Recognize also the shift you make with your “footprint” on society when you get sober: instead of being a burden, you become a productive member of society.

3) Reward yourself in responsible ways by treating yourself to the good things in life that you truly enjoy in your recovery. Allow yourself to rationalize a few of these extravagances. You deserve it!

Recommended Reading

• Overcoming Addiction
• Addiction Recovery is about Discovering New Layers of Information
• 5 Ways to Supercharge Your Recovery, Avoid Relapse, and Dominate Your Addiction Over the Holiday Season
• 10 Ways to Embrace Creative Recovery and Take Your Sobriety to the Next Level
• Holistic Addiction Treatment Center