Fire Up Your Convictions “The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.” – Ferdinand Foch, French soldier, World War I hero, military theorist and writer (1851-1929) While it may have been some time since we felt any kind of rush that wasn’t chemically induced, the concept of the human soul on fire, or firing up our convictions, is something that might prove useful to our continuing recovery. We all need something to believe in. For many of us, though, hope and belief in ourselves died a long time ago and plummeted hard when it did. Bit by bit, day by day, we’ve been trying our best to get it back, with some success here and there. But by and large, we likely wouldn’t classify what we feel and believe to be enthusiastically hopeful – at least in general. The newer we are to recovery, the farther away hope and belief in self probably seems. But it is possible to resurrect hope – or, more to the point for some of us, to generate hope where there never was any. The obvious question is how do we do that? Start with what we feel the strongest about. That could be our spouse or child, a parent, a friend, something that we love to do (but never seem to find the time to get around to). What stirs our feelings and emotions is a clue to something we hold deep and dear. For lack of a better explanation, let’s call this our conviction. We value the person, the community, and our ideals. We want to do what we can to ensure that things go well in regard to them and that we contribute whatever possible to make this a reality. While we may be coming at this from a deficit position, for example, we’re new to recovery and need to focus our attention on healing and beginning our recovery journey, this doesn’t mean that we cannot also pay attention to our convictions. In fact, holding convictions close and not giving up on them is integral to our ability to live up to our word. When we say what we mean and do what we say, we are acting on our commitment – and our convictions. Since we are in recovery for the rest of our life, there is no immediate need to solve all our problems at once. That is highly unlikely, anyway. Recovery is a daily journey, an opportunity to discover new things about us that we never thought possible. This also extends to discovering that we actually do have convictions, that there are things that fire us up and make us eager to tackle them, to get involved, to get busy, to stay active and connected. Life is vibrant and constantly offering us new challenges and presenting new directions that we may choose to take. Visualize what it would look like if we select this course of action or pursue that dream goal or surround ourselves with people who epitomize unbridled optimism, a can-do attitude, and inspire us to join in. While we are at it, we can see how the human soul on fire – firing up our convictions – is a profoundly effective weapon or, better yet, a tool in our recovery journey. Be aware, however, that having conviction doesn’t mean that we’ll always be successful. But when we have strong convictions and act in accordance with them, we will persevere despite any obstacles or set-backs that we encounter. That’s the beauty and the mystery of conviction. It’s virtually unstoppable and magnificent to behold.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 00:21:40 +0000
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