This year’s elections saw more than the transition of electing a president. Votes were cast for more than just who was going to sit in the oval office and who was going to take seats in offices from city council to congress. It was a time of choice over many propositions that would make changes in many states.
The biggest one we hear is over the use of the drug marijuana; this drug is working its way to legalization in many states in our nation. I know there is great debate over it. I have heard the arguments; I have heard how it’s it is either as harmless as or more harmful than alcohol. I know people on both sides.
Maybe you’ve heard that this is the starter drug, something that leads to addiction to major drugs that plague our world – from the use of cocaine to methamphetamines to pills that are used to give a high. I have heard how these drug users almost all started with marijuana.
The bottom line is those that are addicts in this world are not addicted to one thing in it; there’s something inside of them that drives them toward addiction and if you remove one addiction it is soon replaced with another.
I know the many responses I’ll get to this post about legal, harmless, or those who will actually tear me down for use of such a subject to get the point across I am about to share.
Many people who get into self-help products and services are just as addicted as those who use a drug or something else to give them a feeling they think they need. On Monday when we started this week’s theme I told of how excited people usually are when they get started with a new program that they believe is the hope to bring the change in life they previously had no hope in. They started the program; there was a good feeling, then they hit a wall and now reality hits.
Well in the world of drug addiction, the reality a person usually feels is “this is not working; I need more.” In yesterday’s post, we talked about getting to the point that you no longer have “the feeling” you had when you began a new program. We find that life has given us challenges and suddenly the program is no longer easy to do. So we think we must look for another easy fix or feeling; we must find something that works for us.
We are all different and we all must work to make any self-help program work for us. And usually, when we hit the wall, we can find someone else who will tell how that program did not work for them either. I have seen some people in the speaking and self-help industry who are quick to use this fact to build a platform of finding those who have not found success.
People are quicker to say how the program, or person leading the group is the reason it will not work. My wife, who works for Weight Watchers, hears this a lot from people who have tried the program and failed to lose weight. They will tell her that the program just didn’t work; but she knows it’s usually them who didn’t work the program. Well, if you believe that the problem is with the system or leader who has a proven track record, you are the one that believes the drug is the problem (not the drug abuser) and that it’s the gun that kills (not the person pulling the trigger).
The reason almost anything does not work comes from the first word in this week’s theme: “SELF.” That’s right. Most of the time, if something did not work it goes back to self; this is not the case in every situation but usually it is. So what do we do?
Too many will look for something new. Just like the person on drugs will look for something new when the drug effects are no longer there, so will the person who has failed at a self-help program. Tomorrow we will actually cover this and the solution that could turn around any program and stop the cycle in your pursuit of self-help. Come back for the conclusion of Self-Help Cycle tomorrow.
I’m Tim Gillette, the Rocker Life Coach. It’s time to live your dream life, to love what you are doing and those you share life with. Are you ready to do what it takes to become the RockStar in your world?
