When you are in recovery, nothing–no person, no job, no group, no finances, no emotions–can become more important than staying clean.

“Change occurs when you become what you are, not when you try to become what you are not…change seems to happen when you have abandoned the chase after what you want to be (or think you should be) and have accepted–and fully experienced-what you are.” Janette Rainwater

Some checklists I have written to add structure to your recovery life–

QUICK CHECKLIST FOR YOUR CURRENT RECOVERY LIFE

Addiction recovery means living with structure

Is gratitude the foundation for your life?

Do you have a support group of 3-5 people?

Are you living in today?

Ask for help on a regular basis even if it is just something small

Have a daily action plan of things to improve your life

Memorize a positive statement or quotation daily in the morning

Have a few books on hand to read in down times

DAILY SMALL THINGS TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF

Spend 5-10 minutes daily decluttering

Maybe clean one room a day and rotate the others

Do one load of dirty clothes at a time

Clean the windows in one room

Sweep and wax one floor

Clean out one closet or one drawer

Each week, give away 5 things

FINDING A MEANINGFUL LIFE

Volunteering

Take out of your life everything you don’t love

What are you doing to distract yourself from fully enjoying your life

Have a daily project based on helping others

Choose activities to share that you really enjoy

Do not choose activities from a sense of “I should” or duty

Key quality that sets one person from another is self-discipline.

Have no blank or zero days. Do one meaningful thing.

Do gratitude list daily at some time of whatever length you want.

Forgive yourself and be grateful for your wrong choices.

Read everyday

Other posts about recovery first:

1. How to Stucture Your Environment in Early Addiction Recovery
2. Putting Recovery First
3. Build your lifestyle around your recovery, not your recovery around your lifestyle
4. No Major Life Changes in the First Year of Recovery
5. Recovery Road-Map: The First 5 Years
6. To Live and Date in Sobriety
7. How to Overcome the Tough Part in Early Recovery

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