How To Keep Yourself Accountable Through Your Recovery

Not to brag or anything, but my sobriety is pretty fantastic. Changing my mindset and learning to hold myself accountable has opened up so many more doors! In fact, accountability is my #1 tip for staying sober.

Personal Accountability

Holding yourself accountable is the first place you need to start when you want to get real with getting sober. For good. It’s not just a matter of will you do it or not if no one’s looking. It’s a matter of shifting your mindset to constantly ask yourself if you’re being the best version of yourself.

When you think about the negative feelings alcohol delivers, you may think about how you’re basically helpless to your escape the circle of wanting to get drunk. To get wasted. No matter what goes on in your life, you can’t seem to escape the entrapment of your desire to drink and ultimately escape reality. And really, being addicted to escaping reality can be a host to an environment that looks a lot like a victim mentality.

A victim mentality is when you feel helpless like you have no control. That you are powerless. Victims don’t take responsibility for their actions and are quick to place the blame on anyone or anything else but themself. They don’t take action and just kind of hope things get better. 

But holding yourself accountable will have you taking action and making strides to make sure things do improve. Because getting accountable will have you acknowledging reality and finding solutions to problems and goals. Getting real up close and personal with accountability will have you facing your demons and then punching them in their faces. And that’s pretty dope in my book!

How do you shift your mindset from a vulnerable victim to an accountable badass bitch? 

First, check yourself. Journaling is a great way to check in with yourself on a more frequent, if not daily, basis. I love the idea of bullet journaling and Pinterest is full of great ways to track everything worth tracking; like daily mood, habit tracking, progress towards goals, and even gorgeous affirmation quotes. Work on daily journaling to check in and just write what you’re feeling to get it out somewhere instead of bottling it all in.

Next, post your daily habit tracker somewhere you’ll see it every day like the fridge. Seeing your habits stack up will also help give you motivation and having a bit of that motivation to helps to get the fire started! 

I also highly recommend meditation to really check in with your thoughts and process them. I’ve been meditating for the last 4 years of my sobriety, but I’ve really invested in daily meditation in the last year. I’ve noticed a huge difference in how I react to things that happen and have become calm instead of reactive. 

Now that you have your daily personal accountability habits, it’s a good time to think about checking in with someone else about your goals for a sober lifestyle.

Accountability Partner

It’s always easier when you have a buddy asking you if you did what you said you were going to do. Checking in with yourself is something you have to do with yourself on a real level every single day, but what if you had a check-in partner who could also hold you accountable for your actions that week?

You can find a buddy you know and trust and confide in them as frequently as you’d like as long as you make it consistent. Daily, weekly, monthly. Or a combination of all of the above. You can use a good friend, or a family member, or even a fellow recovery friend. There are also options for professional help through coaching or counseling. If you haven’t heard about me yet, I’m a professional recovery coach who helps those in the early stages of recovery and beyond. I can help you with one to one sessions no matter where you are in the world. 

All About Counseling breaks down different kinds of accountability partners in recovery specifically that accountability partners typically fall in three general categories: strugglers who help strugglers, overcomers who help strugglers, and professionals who help strugglers. 

So you see, you can check in with a friend or a family member, even if they’re not sober. You need only have supportive friends who encourage you along your sobriety journey.

Of course, there’s other options to check in with a group like AA or other meetups either in person or virtually. In today’s age of technology, there are loads of virtual options to connect with others who are in recovery and living a sober life who want to help others with their sobriety! 

The importance of checking in with someone else is just as important as checking in with yourself!

Monthly Meeting

Oh, did I mention? I happen to host a free monthly meetup through my super chill Sober Vibes community using Zoom call and you can sign up now to get the deets on the upcoming dates! I’ll check back in with you every month to keep you accountable.

So sign up for my once a month meeting for Sober Vibes women and get seriously sober in 2020!

See you on the inside,

Courtney