Self-Assessment & Life-Style Evalutation

Take a Moment and Think About These Questions.

• Do you value and appreciate what you’ve become and who you are?
• Are you producing the results you want in a manner you respect?
• Are you living fully and maximizing your potential?
• Why do you think you make the choices you do?
• What creates positive feelings for you? Do the positives grow and expand or do they quickly evaporate?
• What have you been telling yourself about you?
• Are your relationships solid? Is there both give and take? Is there a strong bond of mutual respect and/or love?
• Do you like where you are?
• Do you know how to move from where you are to where you want to be?

Just a Few More Questions:

• Do you frequently over do it when it comes to using substances, gambling, spending money or engaging in other excessive behaviours?
• Do people complain about your behaviour?
• Do you frequently have regrets; feel guilty or ashamed about broken promises and failed attempts?
• Are there arguments at home? Is the atmosphere hostile, distant or fearful?
• Does your involvement with the substance or activity narrow your interests? Family, work, friends, and responsibilities don’t seem as important to you as in the past?
• Do you find yourself lacking the energy to follow though at the same level of productivity as in the past? Do you drag yourself to work or family events feeling sick, shaky, exhausted, depressed or anxious? Have these negative feelings had any lasting effect on the frequency of your behaviour?
• Are you close to losing the people and possessions you love or that have great meaning in your life? What have you lost already?
• Does your behaviour threaten your financial security? If not, is your involvement still a huge expenditure that would shock others if they knew? Is it more difficult to justify the amount to yourself?
• Are you confused or ambivalent about the need for change?
• Have you tried in the past to control your behaviour? Was it successful?
• Are you deceitful? Is the extent of deception growing worse? Do you hide purchases or bills from your partner? Do you lie by omission?
• When engaging in your behaviour do you forget all about your responsibilities or choose to ignore them?
• Are you impulsive? Have you found over the course of your life that you frequently make snap decisions and later regret them?

What Do You Think Your Answers Mean?

Hopefully, you’re pleased with your answers and gratified that you’re living fully and maximizing your potential. Maybe you even said, “Wow, I really love my life and everyone in it.” On the other hand, perhaps the questions leave you feeling anxious, defensive, and even a little bit hopeless. Perhaps you don’t care to think about such personal matters. Maybe you feel hostile and resistant. Everyone around you keeps talking about making changes and you’re sick of hearing about it.

The best way to assess the honesty of your responses and what they reveal is to check your answers on a feeling level. Do you feel like you’re being backed into a corner; or do you feel completely hopeless that change you can feel good about is even possible?

Your answers and the feelings they evoke speak directly to the degree of growth and positive energy flowing in your life. Positive, life-affirming energy enables you to live your life to the max! If, on the other hand, your life is filled with arguments, sullen silences, worry, exasperation, denial, resentment and a host of other negative emotions felt by everyone because of someone’s substance use or over-indulgent behaviour, I hope you will reach out and give my office a call.

Undoubtedly, you have more options than you realize right now. Don’t just barely crawl through your life trying to freeze your feelings, thoughts and hopes for the future. Seek some information that might prove helpful. After all, information by itself is harmless. What have you got to lose?

Remember, it’s important to seek counsel that relates directly to your particular situation. Answers that work for most people are not good enough. You want answers that WORK for you.

I've been there and faced similar questions. I found the answers that worked in my life. You can do the same.