The Time Travel Perspective

“If I could go back, I would have changed so many things”, “Man, if I would have just done this I would have been in such a better place right now”, “Your lucky you’re still young because I would love to be that young again”.

These are all things that we have heard or said probably a hundred times. All of the wishing we have done reflecting on the past, just expecting that our mistakes have created our destiny. I guess there’s nothing we can do now right? Wrong! We need to keep things in perspective that yes, time does seem to go by very fast, but we still have so much time left to make some big changes in our lives. I think this perspective is the most beneficial to start your journey into recovery and understanding the mentality of being a proud addict. So, read carefully and take this perspective to heart.

This perspective is mainly focused on long term goal setting and figuring out what small goals we can set to reach them. The idea is to put yourself into a mindset of meeting yourself sometime in the future and being honest about what they would tell you to do today in the present.

Put yourself in your own mindset 1 year from now. What would they be happy about you starting today? This is where the “Time Travel” comes into play for the time travel perspective.

We often find ourselves living in the past making wishes of things we didn’t do or wish we had started. There is no benefit in this other than to find out those wishes are something we can work on now, which undoubtably happens to every person anywhere. I emphasize what you specifically would tell yourself a year from now because we are the ones who are going to be the most honest with ourselves over anyone else. We know better than anyone else what we are capable of and what we honestly want in this life therefore we have all the potential of being our best motivator.

When my clients ask me for advice about what coping skills they can use, I give them the basics like having someone to trust, taking a long walk when you feel a trigger coming on and calling me, even if it is just to leave a message saying that you are having a trigger. Sometimes just verbalizing out loud what you are facing can be very therapeutic. Once I give them those basic coping skills, I then tell them that they are the ones who are going to find out what coping skills will help them out the most. I always tell them that they are their best counselor. You are your best counselor. I say this because you can tell anyone anything you want, but whether you believe that or not is between only you and yourself.

This is why consulting and imagining what you know you would tell you a year from now is the most beneficial way to set your long-term goals. You know yourself better than anyone, so make that decision to be your best self and be honest about what you know you can achieve. This is what the time travel perspective is all about.

Trust your struggle

A lot of the time when we are setting goals we only focus on the feeling of when the goal is achieved. When we do this, we are taking away a decent amount of the enjoyment of goal setting. When we only focus on the end goal and do not focus on the dedication that we are putting into reaching that goal, we sell ourselves short of reaching that goal every day.

When I say this, I mean that with every goal that we have in mind we know what we need to do to achieve it. So, if your goal is to graduate college, if your homework is done you achieved that long-term goal for the day. Learning to love and be proud of the work you are doing the whole time you are doing it is what is going to help you most in your recovery.

Don’t wait for the satisfaction of your goal being set. Be satisfied about the hard work that you are doing to achieve it. Embrace your inner warrior and bring it to light. Trust your struggle because your struggle means you are moving in the right direction.