Journey into Sobriety: Corey's Thanksgiving Message of Recovery

Have you ever struggled with addiction or felt alone in your journey towards sobriety? Join me, Corey Berrier, in this special Thanksgiving edition of the Successful Life Podcast as we break down the barriers surrounding addiction and sobriety. I opened up about my own journey towards sobriety, highlighting the stark difference between merely quitting drinking and truly being sober. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we reflect on our victories, no matter how small, and express our heartfelt gratitude for your support, which has propelled our show to over 300,000 downloads.

Navigating the world of recovery can be a lonely battle, but it doesn't have to be. In this candid episode, I share my struggles with fitting into recovery and the common misconception of being 'different'. If you're currently battling addiction, I want you to know that you're not alone. Together, let's chart a path towards self-improvement, learning, and growing from our experiences. This Thanksgiving, join me in celebrating not just the good in our lives but the lessons learned from our struggles. Ready to embark on this journey? Let's dive in.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:57

Welcome to the successful life podcast. I'm your host, corey barrier. Today, folks, it is thanksgiving and this is a bit of a special edition. I'm just doing the solo today, but I wanted to just jump in and Do a short conversation with you and just say how thankful I am for the people that have supported the show this year you, the person listening. And so, look, dude, we've grown. We just hit over over 300,000 downloads, and a lot of those downloads came from this year and do that, I'll be honest, like this pretty mind blowing for me, like I'm from Mayberry, so like I don't.

Speaker 1: 1:47

You know, I never in a million years thought this would even be a possibility. I mean, jesus, I worked on this podcast for three and a half almost Well, maybe longer than that years Without it really going very far. I mean, I remember, man, I was stuck at the top 5% for years and this year we moved to the top 2% and I'm super grateful for that. And this is not about me. This is about me Me really really being grateful for everybody that has helped get the show here. And so it's Thanksgiving. This is the first time I've ever done a Thanksgiving edition of the successful life podcast, but I wanted just to jump in and say, hey, if you're listening to this like you're winning, if you're listening to this show today, you probably have a pretty good life.

Speaker 1: 2:53

And there's lots of times that I'll just be honest with you. Lots of times I'm ungrateful, right, I'm ungrateful on, you know, for many reasons. Right, I don't get what I want or I don't things don't go my way or my expectations or not where they need to be, and so, if that's you, then maybe reframe how you're thinking about that, right? Because, listen, we're all human beings, we're all going to make mistakes. God knows I have made plenty of mistakes this year alone.

Speaker 1: 3:32

You know, I've been totally sober since March 26. And so we're coming up on nine months, which is pretty wild. It's pretty wild that I've even able to sit here and tell you that I'm completely sober, because if you'd ask me over nine months ago, I would have told you yeah, I've been sober for 14 years. But the truth is I haven't drank for 14 years, but, as many of you have heard on my show before, I smoked some weed for several years. Six years, six and a half years. And look, my story is this you can't get sober if you're smoking weed Right, I tried every way possible.

Speaker 1: 4:18

If it was possible, I for sure would have been successful at it. However, it did not work for me and maybe it is working for you and maybe or maybe it's not not working for you, maybe maybe it feels like it's working like it did for me, but at the end of the day, you know, when we get sober from drinking or from hard drugs, so to speak, it's quite a change, it's a huge change. There's DT's, there's withdrawals. I mean, when I quit drinking alcohol, it was the hardest thing outside of cigarettes, the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. And if you're listening to this podcast right this second and you are struggling with alcohol, I get you. I get you because it is an absolute juggernaut of a disease and I want to be transparent with you.

Speaker 1: 5:26

I didn't think I fit in recovery. I didn't think, you know, I knew I had a problem, you know had 3D UIs, a whole list of things. But I thought I was different. I thought I was totally different than the rest of the people in recovery and the truth of the matter is I'm just not. I'm just like you potentially, but I'm certainly like all those people because I am one of them, and so I thought I could smoke weed. I thought I could squeak through and be different.

Speaker 1: 6:06

I can tell you, right now is zero fun trying to squeak through and be different when you're not different. And the craziness of that is, you know, I essentially lived just like I had been drinking, without the drinking. To be honest with you, if I would have went back to drinking, I probably would have f things up way quicker than I did smoke Because, look, I smoke weed was a slow bleed for me. It was such a gradual, slow process that I didn't realize that I was screwing things up. Now, yes, you know, I started the podcast during that time. I wrote a book during that time, a couple of books during that time, but that was sheer will and ego and pride, and, at the end of the day, that shit will kill you if you don't get rid of it.

Speaker 1: 7:08

And so the other thing that I'd love to share with you for a second is look, if you're struggling like I have been right, for you know, up until these nine months, dude, it's been a real struggle. And I'm not telling you that these nine months have been a walk in the park, because by no means have they been. However, you know, I have to ask for help when I need help and if I don't get the help that I'm looking for, I have to try again or try another person. And I'm going to tell you something that's one of the hardest things that a man has to do is ask for help and sometimes, to this day, I know exactly what to do but I can't do it because I get jammed up in my head.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Those voices that you hear when you, when you're thinking about doing something, and the little voice says yeah, no, you probably don't need to do that, because they're probably going to say no, that woman's probably going to say no, that guy's going to say no, that boss is going to say no, that job is going to say no. That feeling, that freaking blank people. But look, dude, like it's your own internal struggle, just like me, like I'm no different than you. I have my internal struggles, just like everybody else. Now you may look at me on the outside and think, oh, that guy's got it all together, deadass wrong. I definitely don't have it all together, but it's been a journey. But if you're walking around and you think you have it all together, but you know you don't. You're just trying to save your face instead of your ass. It doesn't work. You can't save both your face and your ass. It can't happen, right, you've got to save one of the two, and my choice today is to save my ass, not save my face.

Speaker 1: 9:28

So there's a lot of people that probably don't love me I don't know if they do or not, and at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter to me if you like me or if you don't like me, because, guess what, I'm still going to be me. Now, does that mean I don't have some insecurity or self-esteem? Yeah, and sometimes it does matter. It does matter to me what people think, but the truth of the matter is, it's really none of my damn business what you think about me. You know what I mean. So, and I would encourage you to think about that right, think about is it your business what somebody else thinks about you? Not really. Does it affect you? Truthfully, does it affect you what other people think about you? And you can only answer that? I can't answer that for you, but for me in my life, I would say that other people's opinions don't really matter.

Speaker 1: 10:33

So I'm sure you're home with your family today, and if you're not with your family and you're lonely and you're struggling, find a recovery meeting. If that's what you're struggling with, if you're just alone by yourself, pick up the phone and call somebody because it's Thanksgiving and the truth of the matter is you shouldn't be alone Now. You may have burnt all your bridges, and if you have, you probably don't listen to this podcast. Maybe you are. But look, this is an opportunity today, maybe for you and for me even to change something, right? I just think today is a day that sometimes we take for granted, right? I can't wait to get to freaking Black Friday shopping, which, you know, I'd rather be beat with a leather belt than good Black Friday effin shopping.

Speaker 1: 11:31

So the message today is just you know, be cool with yourself, be kind with yourself, and if you are going through some sort of drug addiction or some sort of alcohol addiction, you're not alone, dude. There's people all over the world that goes through the same exact thing you do, and you'd be shocked sometimes that people go through crazier shit than you. I've been shocked, I mean, sometimes I'll be in a recovery meeting and somebody will say something so damn out of left field that I'm like. Well, jesus, I'm glad you know, I'm glad I'm not going through that, right, I mean, a guy shared? Well, I won't go into who a guy sharing, I guess that's probably off limits. But look, the stories are the same and when you're talking about the struggle with alcohol and drugs, it has.

Speaker 1: 12:39

No, it doesn't play favorites, like it's not a social class thing. Like you know, with the 12 step program that I'm in, there's people from all walks of life in there, people that look like they crawled out from under a bridge, and then there's people in there that probably could buy and sell Raleigh 17 times, and it doesn't really matter to me which one you are if you're trying to get better. Right, you're not trying to get better. I mean, you probably are not in a 12 step program. But there may be somebody in your family that's struggling and I would encourage you to send this podcast to them and maybe that could turn their life around. Who knows? But I'll tell you, if I hadn't listened to other people ask people for help, all right, all right, you know, and believed that I was going to make it out, I'd probably still be stuck, and the truth of the matter is being stuck sucks, man, it really sucks.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Being jammed up, and I would encourage you and look, this is not just drugs and alcohol. There's all kinds of addictions out there, you know, and if it's not one thing, it feels like it's another. But you give yourself a break today and maybe not feed that addiction quite as much. I know this podcast was all over the place, and if you've ever listened to a solo podcast of mine, you know they don't normally all over the place Hell, maybe even a podcast with somebody's all over the place. So I'll just end with this happy Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1: 14:35

You're here for a reason. You're not here by accident. You're not listening to this podcast right this second by accident. There's a reason, I believe, why you got this message today, and so maybe go back and re listen to it and maybe I said something that really pissed you off. Maybe I said something that really struck a chord, and if it did, maybe you should look at that and know that's hard to do. But it's pretty rewarding when you see a change in your life. It's really rewarding when you're able to reach your hand out and help somebody else, and so I appreciate every single one of you that have listened to this podcast, every single one of you that's been kind enough to leave a review, because those things help, and I appreciate you tuning in every single week.

Speaker 1: 15:42

I try to bring on people that I think you're going to enjoy and, selfishly, I try to bring on people that I could learn something from, and that's a privilege, in my opinion. I get an education from people that are the leaders in the home services industry, and that's pretty dope. I'm not going to lie to you. It's one of the benefits of doing this show and, yes, I'm going to stop rambling. Happy Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1: 16:08

I appreciate each and every one of you and look, if you are curious about the AI space, if you're curious about what AI can do for your home services business, I would encourage you to reach out to me. You can email me at quarry, at quarrybarriercom, and we can have a conversation about it. But look, it's coming. It's not coming, it's here and it's changing the industry as you and I know it, and if you don't get on board, I'm telling you right now you will wish you had of. That's not a threat, it's a promise. I suppose I just see it Like my company, ai, ai automations group. We're building these things that are making massive changes in businesses just like yours. So, guys, I appreciate you. Happy Thanksgiving and have a great, great Thursday. Stay tuned till tomorrow. And we have got from searchlight, so it's going to be a dope conversation. I hope you can. I hope you can get on board, because they are doing some pretty badass stuff in this space. Talk to you soon.