Adam Alexander

Mrs. Tamera Davis

Comp II
27 November 2017
Believe in Yourself
Whether you think you can or you cant; youre right. This quote is one of my

favorites by Henry Ford. It means a lot to me because for a long time in my life I did not believe

in myself and those times were dark. I have had successes and failures, and most of the time the

result was a product of whether I had the patience or the belief in myself that I could do it or not.

Motivation to persist cannot come from an outside source or the fire will die. It was these dark

times of uncertainty and self-doubt that brought me to a place where it was either believe or die,

literally. Addiction was the ruling factor in all my decision making, and I never felt whole.

There was something missing in me. Finally, I figured out what I was missing, and it was hope.

Hope is many things, but the most important word in the definition is expectation.

Raising the expectation for myself to do better than I have before is the guiding spirit that rules

my decisions. In order to do better I have to believe that I can do better. Without that belief, I

will quickly lose motivation and my mind will accept my circumstances as they are, and I will

become stagnant. Even worse still, becoming complacent in my relationships and self-

improvement allows a certain level of average acceptance. I have come to accept that my mind

does not always tell me the truth. I find myself thinking that where I am in life is the best it will

be, but I have to convince myself that is not the case if I want to improve. Many years in the

world of addiction has warped my mind into a default, self-doubting mode. Through practice, I

have trained my mind to disregard these thoughts of unremarkable living.

 My mind has more power over how I feel than I like to think. I may feel with my heart,

but my brain can adjust how the heart feels at the drop of a dime. It is so easy for me to lie to

myself, and those lies directly affect how I feel and my level of motivation or even if I try to

begin with. My struggle with addiction was the most difficult to overcome. Before I could even

make an honest effort, I had to believe that it was even possible. My world perception was that

everyone used drugs and alcohol except recovering addicts. The reality is that a lot of people do

not partake in those types of activities, but my mind believed it was not true. Once I believed it

was possible, it was a matter of believing in myself that I could make the necessary changes to

my thinking to avoid using drugs. My mind tried to trick me into using for a million different

reasons, but I had to stay true to my belief that I was going to live without drugs or alcohol. It is

these lies and excuses we make to ourselves that test our integrity. Without believing in myself,

I never would have sobered up.

Getting clean and sober is the most difficult journey I have endeavored. Initially, every

ounce in my body told me to give up, but it was my undying resolve to be better and believe that

I could do it no matter what. For someone that used drugs or alcohol all day, every day it was

going to take an all day, every day effort to reverse that mindset. I told myself it was not worth

it, and that I will not succeed, so why try? It was these self-doubting thoughts that tried to break

that resolve, but because I made a promise to myself to give it the most honest effort I could I did

succeed and am still doing well.

Life as I know it has made a complete reversal. I was once unhealthy, enslaved to the

throws of addiction, and on a path to nowhere. I was in and out of jail with no career prospects,

and was living by a set of arbitrary guidelines nowhere close to resembling a moral compass.

Because I chose to believe in myself and do the right thing, I can love myself and trust my
thoughts more and more each day. Believing in myself is what changed my life for the better.

That belief is what has projected to me the life I live, and life is good.