Dealing with an addiction and conquering it is a life changing experience.

But not everyone makes it out alive.

Some people break down in the face of their addiction and they let the disease take hold of their soul until it’s too late, while others choose to stand up for themselves and face this adversity with commitment and resolve.

There are a lot of sites on the internet that offer step-by-step programs to keep you on the right track. But even if you get your hands on the best system in the world, if you’re not gritty enough you’ll probably lapse back.

In this post, I want to discuss the factor of grit and how it can influence your recovery process and your chances of success.

1. Grittiness

Psychologists define gritty people as those who have sustained motivation to reach long-term goals despite having the urge to quit.

That’s not the same as perseverance.

Perseverance in psychology usually refers to overcoming short-term struggles and carrying through. Moreover, unlike grittiness, perseverance is largely based on “push” factors. You have to keep pushing and even dragging yourself until you’ve overcome the immediate obstacles you have before you.

Grit, however, includes a “push” and a “pull” factor.

So it includes perseverance but you are also being pulled forward by a deep personal desire to realize the end result that you see for yourself. You feel compelled to invest in creating and reinforcing in yourself a stronger and more powerful motivation to become and stay sober. And the stronger your “pull, ” the greater your chances of success.

On this basis, psychologists have identified grit as the main non-cognitive factor that distinguishes success from failure in the process toward recovery. In fact, recent studies have shown that grit ranks higher than intelligence as a predictor of achievement.

So you don’t have to have a Ph.D in order to become and stay sober. You don’t need to be a highly paid banker or a successful tech entrepreneur to reach and maintain sobriety.

You have to build up your grit. And yes you can do that.

2. It’s a Marathon not a Sprint

People usually operate under the false belief that reaching sobriety is based on will-power.

They believe they have to exert their self-control and regulate their impulses and harshly deny themselves what they crave in order to stay sober.

And thinking that way is like the person who wants to sprint a marathon.

But let me be honest with you, you can’t sprint a marathon.

I understand that you want to get this whole thing over with and get back to your normal life. But if you choose to go with the “will-power” route and sprint your way into sobriety, then you’re going to lapse back. And that’s going to happen to you very, very quickly.

You have to look at the process of recovery differently.

You must see your addiction as a temporary condition. It’s not permanent. It’s something that you can tackle and handle if you start slow.

And in order to do so, you have to being by wanting to create a new life and a new mindset. If you stop using, but you nevertheless carry yourself around with the same attitude and you’re surrounded with the same old friends and the same environmental factors that’ve led you to use in the first place, then you’re more likely than not to get back to using.

3. Gritting Your Way Out

Having the courage to start slow and to create a new life for yourself is something you have to be fully invested in achieving.

Becoming sober must be your one and most important priority.

That’s the only goal that matters to you and you’re going to do whatever it takes to change your life around and create a new future for yourself.

This entails choosing and practicing new habits that support your recovery. For example you might be interested in running every morning, or in doing magic tricks, or doing specialized workouts like crossfit workouts. It can be anything that you’re excited about doing for yourself. So pick something and join those who are passionate about the same thing.

That will slowly change your lifestyle, the group of friends you hang out with, and eventually your values.

But you have to make a conscious effort to stay on track. You need to create a compelling vision of the person you want to be a few months (and even a few years) down the road, and you have to endorse that identity.

You have to be fully invested in that vision and to articulate your reasons for why you want to stick to your new lifestyle using captivating language. You have to choose quotes, words, sentences, or pieces of wisdom that inspire you to take action. And you have to updated those things regularly.

For example, a wisdom quote that you read today will not be as effective 3 months from today. You already know it, and you don’t derive the same amount of value from it. So find more wisdom and motivational quotes and keep updating them so that you can stay on track.

4. Gritty People Are Not Bored

If you want to prevent yourself from lapsing back, then you must not be bored. And I can’t emphasize that enough.

If you’re bored, then you’ve got too much free time on your hands that you’re not using effectively. Boredom is perhaps your worst enemy in the process of recovery. And that’s because your mind will trick you into remembering the good old times and how great it felt at one point to be using. That’s what bored minds do.

And it’s not in your best interest to re-live those moments.

You must keep yourself engaged in a course of activities. You must play sports, talk with a therapist, visit family, go for a run, join a club, try improv acting, etc.

Sobering up takes hard work and you have to accept that that’s what it takes to become sober. But it’s also an opportunity for you to explore your interests in ways you’ve never done before. And once you do that and begin to believe that you’re the captain of your ship and the master of your destiny, then you will consciously build a new lifestyle and present yourself with a new attitude that can bring a new sense of joy and fulfillment into your life.