What an amazing thing! We have reached the end of our first year of sobriety. There are a huge number of inspirational quotes that reflect this achievement and what it means. Our sober journey has just started, and the best days are still ahead.
So on our first sober anniversary, let’s take time to pause and look at some motivational quotes as we continue on this recovery journey.
1. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I know I can (Watty Piper)
We thought we could, we thought we could, we thought we could. We know we can.
2. There are women succeeding beyond their wildest dreams because of their sobriety. (Mary Karr)
Women have a more difficult time with alcohol addiction. The term lush is more generally applied to them and implies a loose morality seen as more acceptable in men. Yet the program does not differentiate between genders, and everyone can succeed beyond their wildest dreams.
3. I’m pretty confident about my sobriety, but I don’t want to get too confident because that’s when I’ll crash. (Mary Doctor)
Even if it has been a year all that really counts is staying sober just for today.
4. Everything had to happen in order for me to learn the lessons that I learned. It was a painful journey, and I look back and sometimes I get sad when I think of the pain that I had to endure to overcome what I have, but I don’t regret anything. I’m so proud of the person I am today. (Demi Lovato)
This sums up our state at one year very well. Perhaps the most difficult thing to achieve in the 9th step promises is not regretting the past.
5. We know what we are but know not what we may be. (William Shakespeare)
And we will only ever gain glimpses of what we may be because that is never fixed and moves as we grow.
6. Relax. Breathe. It takes time, but there is a great joy to be had in moments of every day. Just remember, you’re learning new steps, a new dance. (Lisa Frederiksen)
It has only been a year. Remember we are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines.
7. Don’t let the past steal your present.” (Terri Guillemets)
We cannot spend our futures rooted in the past.
8. Recovery is not simple abstinence. It’s about healing the brain, remembering how to feel, learning how to make good decisions, becoming the kind of person who can engage in healthy relationships, cultivating the willingness to accept help from others, daring to be honest, and opening up to doing. (Debra Jay)
Staying free from substance abuse is not just about stopping the use of the substance or substances we were a slave to. We need to achieve emotional sobriety, too.
9. There are multiple pathways to addiction recovery and ALL are cause for celebration! (William L. White)
We have had 365 celebrations. The important thing is the last one.
10. If things go wrong, don’t go with them. (Roger Babson)
This may be the best directive for staying sober.
11. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness (Alcoholics Anonymous)
So, after a year of sobriety how are you feeling?
12. So far you’ve survived 100% of your worst days. You’re doing great. (Norm Kelly)
Compare the then and the now and say this isn’t true.
13. I have faced it, a life wasted.
I’m never going back again.
I escaped it, a life wasted.
I’m never going back again.
Having tasted, a life wasted.
I’m never going back again. (Eddie Vedder)
The first day is a good day to decide to not go back again. A year is too.
15. We’re all looking at the people around us, the people who have gone before us who have succeeded in recovery and have long-term sobriety and they are an illustration for us of how good it can be. (Scott Steven)
And slowly we become an illustration as well.
16. Get in touch with their own intuition. The answers are inside if we have a process to be introspective. (Dr. Herby Bell)
We intuitively get to understand what is right and what is not.
17. An unconsidered life is not one worth living. (Socrates)
In the past we only considered alcohol. That has changed with our spiritual awakening.
18. One year is not a lifetime., but it’s a great start (Anonymous)
Who would have thought a year was ever possible.
19. Nobody stays recovered unless the life they have created is more rewarding and satisfying than the one they left behind. (Anne Fletcher)
This is why we need emotional sobriety – to be happily sober.
20. When I got sober, I thought giving up was saying goodbye to all the fun and all the sparkle, and it turned out to be just the opposite. That’s when the sparkle started for me. (Mary Karr)
Two great things about sober fun are waking up without a hangover and remembering the fun.
21. Being in recovery has given me everything of value that I have in my life. Integrity, honesty, fearlessness, faith, a relationship with God, and most of all gratitude. It’s given me a beautiful family and an amazing career. I’m under no illusions where I would be without the gift of alcoholism and the chance to recover from it. (Rob Lowe)
It sure wasn’t a gift when we were abusing substances but if we learn from the past we emerge better people.
22. Suffering isn’t ennobling, recovery is. (Christiaan Barnard)
Okay, he wasn’t talking about addiction, but the takeaway is still true for those of us in recovery.
23. The changes we dread most may contain our salvation. (Barbara Kingsolver)
Those changes for those of us in recovery do contain our salvation.
24. I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. (Rabindranath Tagore)
We carried this message to the still suffering alcoholic.
25. Alcohol ruined me financially and morally, broke my heart and the hearts of too many others. Even though it did this to me and it almost killed me and I haven’t touched a drop of it in seventeen years, sometimes I wonder if I could get away with drinking some now. I totally subscribe to the notion that alcoholism is a mental illness because thinking like that is clearly insane. (Craig Ferguson)
Temptation, as insane as it may seem, still continues. The addiction is not gone. We now have the ability to control our response.
26. You were sick, but now you’re well again, and there’s work to do. (Kurt Vonnegut)
This could almost be our motto. Think of the last three steps and the work we need to do to stay sober.
27. We must be content to grow slowly. Most of us will still barely be at the beginning of our recovery by the time we die. But that is better than killing ourselves pretending to be healthy.” (Simon Tugwell)
This is the truth. Recovery is a process that needs to be continued until the day we pass on.
28. Guilt is a destructive and ultimately pointless emotion. (Lynn Crilly)
Of all the things I found difficult, not regretting the past was the most difficult, and not being able to make amends to those who have passed away before I sober up. We need to move on.
29. We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it. (Rick Warren)
As I said, we need to move on.
30. Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over. (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Relapsing is something we don’t like to think about and don’t want to consider the possibility. If, though, we do relapse we need to be able to start again.
31. Live long and prosper (Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock)
The actor was a confessed alcoholic, and I cannot think of a better wish for anyone living an alcohol-free life.
32. I ‘m not what I have done. I am what I have overcome. (Anonymous)
We are our future and not our past, but we live in the present.
33. Don’t be ashamed of your story. It will inspire others. (Anonymous)
This is exactly why we share.
34. Once I was clear-headed, and I hadn’t been clear-headed in so long, I was like, I can never go back. And I’m still thankful. (Travis Barker)
Please don’t go back
35. Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. (Robert Louis Stevenson)
We use sow hurt and fear. How good it is that now we plant compassion and care.
36. A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering. (Dalai Lama)
The steps we have done beginning with the first step, lead to discipline.
37. My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me. (Henry Ford)
One of the things it was necessary to do was to let go of friends who did not accept our sobriety
38. Although you may not always be able to avoid difficult situations, you can modify the extent to which you can suffer by how you choose to respond to the situation. (Dalai Lama)
The ability to choose how to respond is key to the recovery process and creates a solid foundation for a new life.
39. The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. (Nelson Mandela)
We may have slips, but we need to get back on the program and carry on trying,
40. Life is a progress, and not a station. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Make no mistake, there is a harsh lesson. A one-year anniversary does not mean the journey of recovery is ended. It is a journey that will continue for the rest of your life.
41. The greatest barrier to progress is complacency (Anonymous)
When we rest on our laurels, we risk a slip.
42. A new day: Be open enough to see opportunities. Be wise enough to be grateful. Be courageous enough to be happy. (Steve Maraboli)
Every day from the first day of sobriety has been a reason for gratitude and joy.
43. I feel like God has blessed me so much already, and he keeps continuing to bless me. (Odell Beckham, Jr.)
We are blessed on each day of this sobriety journey.
44. Your past has given you the strength and wisdom you have today. (Anonymous)
We build on the memories of what we were to create who we become.
45. The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. (Khalil Gibran)
This is where our new start begins when clear-eyed sobriety opens our minds. After a year we should have stepped over that be aware of the better person we can become.
46. Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different … (C. S. Lewis)
Sit back and reflect. A year ago, you came to a meeting for the first time. Think of the great way your life has changed since then.
47. Attempts must be made, even when there can be no hope. The alternative is despair. (Stephen R. Donaldson)
The surprising outcome of many of these attempts is that they were not hopeless. So, it is when we resist the temptation to pick up a drink.
48. You just have to take it one day at a time. Some days are easier than others and some days you forget about drinking and using, but for me, I work on my physical health, which is important, but my mental health as well. (Demi Lovato)
Achieving mental health is at the core of recovery and is at the heart of all the positive changes we have experienced.
We hope you have enjoyed these sobriety quotes in celebration of a year of being a sober alcoholic. 365 just for today is 365 days in the right direction. Well done.