Pioneering recovery educators Dave and Susan Kenney want you to harness the power of your brain and unlock your extraordinary. The Kenneys are the highly regarded health, well-being, and recovery practitioners behind the innovative Brain-First methodology, Actualized Recovery.
Actualized Recovery encourages individuals struggling with addiction, substance use disorder, and other problematic behaviors to reverse engineer their futures. That means looking at their present and past and consciously or unconsciously moving away from pain points to create a happier, healthier, and more prosperous tomorrow.
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Value-Driven Future
Actualized Recovery champions what authors the Kenneys call a value-driven future. When people are having difficulties completing goals, it’s likely because they’re fighting their desire for something new with their default mode to stay in their current comfort zone.
Your comfort zone is safe. It may not be great, and you may even loathe elements of your present life, but it’s predictable and requires less effort than changing. Fear bubbles up for many people when they think of embarking on a new life.
To unlock your extraordinary, especially when faced with adversity, including being in the throes of addiction, you must get uncomfortable.
Find Your Moral Compass
Challenging the fear of changing what’s predictable, comfortable, and safe opens up a whole new world of what’s possible, including a life free of addiction and other adversity.
Fear typically falls into three main categories: failing, looking silly, and being disliked. Overcome these obstacles by getting clear on what you value. Then, align your choices with your values before embracing the potential unpleasantness of possibly failing, looking silly, and feeling disliked in the process.
On the other side of these commonly fear-inducing and admittedly unpleasant possible but far from guaranteed outcomes is your freedom. When you get clear on your values, you find your moral compass – a vital tool in helping you visualize an extraordinary future and the path you must take to get there.
Flip the Switch on Your Mindset
Actualized Recovery from Dave and Susan Kenney teaches how people invariably have one of two mindsets: a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. A growth mindset allows you to believe that you can gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed. That makes every challenge an opportunity for growth.
On the other hand, a fixed mindset leads you to believe that if you don’t already have the skills or intelligence required to complete a given task, there’s no chance of succeeding. Or, if you believe the problem is not your fault and is out of your control, why even try?
Alongside finding your moral compass, you can flip the switch on thinking that effort and difficulty are painful. With that, you can overcome the belief that significant effort and difficulty are necessary precursors to your growth. Your mind then shifts to finding solutions and enjoys the process.
When presented with a challenge that’s hard or requires you to do something you haven’t done before, simply tell yourself that you can’t do it yet – not that you can’t do it, period. This simple action sets your brain on a creative mission to discover how to achieve what you need to accomplish to move forward.
One Word: Yet
“Yet” is an incredibly powerful word. Via Actualized Recovery, Dave and Susan Kenney explain that by telling yourself that you can’t do something yet, rather than not at all, you can retrain your brain. When you accept the challenge to grow beyond your limiting beliefs, you’re directly upgrading your brain and, in the process, improving your lifestyle exponentially.
That includes overcoming adversity in the shape of everything from addiction to various struggles rooted in both mental and physical health. Renowned musician Quincy Jones once said, “I don’t have problems; I have puzzles.”
That’s a growth mindset statement that engages the brain to find answers. This is not about willpower, nor is overcoming addiction or many of life’s other challenges. If you think you’ve failed in the past because you lack willpower, Actualized Recovery brings with it great news: a lot of the time, you don’t need willpower at all.
Instead, you need to cultivate a growth mindset that fully embraces a brain-healthy lifestyle and one in which the word “yet” is pivotal in overcoming even seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Flip the switch on your mindset now and start harnessing the power of your brain to begin unlocking your extraordinary today.
