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Is there something nagging me, something I planned to do, said I would do, but haven’t done? If so, do I know why I’m not doing it? Sometimes it’s a fear of people. I’m afraid of how I’ll be perceived if I send that email or schedule that event. Today, if I’m having trouble moving…
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It’s normal to think about work a lot. Right? It’s such an important part of life, and it can require so much attention, and it takes up such a big part of the day. In the rooms of recovery, it’s common to hear, “Whatever you think about the most is your Higher Power.” If I…
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New behavior is uncomfortable. But working the Steps can give me a new comfort with letting go of the outcome when I try something different. As I progress through the Steps, there’s a magic that happens that makes me better able to detach from other people’s responses, more aware that if I make a mistake,…
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For a long time, the meaning I found in my work came from doing my best every day. No matter what else happened—if I couldn’t make everyone happy that day, if someone was rude or outright mean, if my hard work went unnoticed—I could end the day knowing that I had done my best and…
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For some of us, denying mistakes or missteps is a deep reflex. Before recovery, we may have saved face by sidestepping blame, feigning ignorance, or outright lying. When we start working Steps, we might read ahead to Step Ten and wonder how we’ll do it. The wording of Step Ten—“when we were wrong”—reminds me that…
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It’s easy to think of my work in terms of how it will pay off in the future. Will my boss recommend me for a new opportunity? Will this assignment give me experience that will lead to something better? Will I make new network connections that could pay off down the line? All of those…
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It’s easy to see the negative. If my workplace is home to things like gossip or slacking off or disrespect, I’m sure to notice. What I do with that observation is up to me. I can let my frustration ratchet up, or I can focus on changing the things I can. Today I’ll try using…
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How is my judgment level today? Am I nursing grumbly thoughts about a coworker or my boss? Have I grown to resent a project because I’m not being honest with others about some aspect of it? In other words, am I distancing myself from other people today? I’ve heard it said in recovery: “I can…
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Many of us who wind up in recovery developed an outsized sense of responsibility along the way, always trying to create the circumstances that will make us okay. That makes it hard to handle the reality that we can’t control much of what goes on around us. The difficult people in our workplace, the vagaries…
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All workplaces have their conflicts, and some are outright contentious. Grudges have a tendency to fester among people who see each other every day. And disliking someone is sometimes the easiest course of action — it feels protective somehow, and it spares us from the difficult work of honesty, forgiveness, and problem-solving. Many recovering people…
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Recovering at Work 