Getting Out of My Box, Tearing Down the Walls
My name is Sean Morrison. I am an advocate for Heroes in Recovery and I am truly passionate about this movement. What caught my eye and makes me even more passionate about this movement is the fact that we are trying to reach the 19 million Americans who have not received the treatment they need, in part because of the stigma attached to recovery. I assure you I am working hard on making our dreams of breaking that stigma come true. I have one concern though. I am a middle class male who hangs out with middle class sober people, therefore that’s who I think I reach. As while this is not a grave concern, it still sparked the thought, “How do I reach the 19 million people who either have not heard of, don’t want, haven’t gotten or are not interested in getting recovery, whom I would not normally reach?”
After having this thought, I figured I would write about how to get out of my comfort zone and take my small box, tear it apart and broaden my personal life so I can have even more fun and reach more people.
I believe in the saying, “I can only be who I am,” meaning if I don’t do something, I can’t be that; for example, if I don’t run, I can’t be a runner. But I can say that I am an addict, advocate, student, entrepreneur, internet freak, movie watcher, social media consultant, domain buyer and seller and a studier of all things interesting to me. I would hate to limit myself to those things; I am lot more than that, I’m just can’t list everything I do.
I guess the real questions are, “What if I want to-do more? What if I want to make a greater impact and break the stigma attached to recovery in more aspects of life? What would I have to do?” I think the answer is that I have to break out of my oh-so-comfortable “comfort zone.”
If I want to broaden my personal life, I have to be more. I have dreams of being a runner, a public speaker, and an inspiration. I have dreams of being something I’m not, and as I mentioned, my small box is my problem. There is no such thing as asking the question, “What if I want to do more?”; there is only doing more. Even the idea of me having a box limits my possibilities and the idea that I want to make a greater impact just tells me I think I’m not doing good enough as is.
So how do I reach the 19 million people that either have not heard of, don’twant, have not gotten or are not interested in recovery that I would not normally reach? I need to get rid of the idea of a “comfort zone.” I need to abolish the idea of a box, and I have to stop wanting more and just do more. I have to stop limiting myself with who I think I am, and stop thinking about what I could be doing with just doing what I’m doing. So I guess I am a speaker, an inspiration, and a runner, but I just haven’t run yet. I have to rid myself of who I think I am and of the saying “I can only be who I am.” With that in mind, who are you, what makes you who you are, and why?