This is the time of year when many people resolve to do some things and not do other things. New Year’s resolutions can be a big deal. We hear different people making different resolutions for the upcoming year, including our friends and neighbors, relatives, and even celebrities.

While New Year’s resolutions are noble intentions, I’m afraid that they’re not for me. I’m all about positive change and improvement. I just don’t want to pledge those kinds of things at one single time of the year in an all-or-nothing kind of proposition.

Recovery from a substance use disorder problem seems to work the same way. It’s not something you can pledge to do one time. Instead, recovery is something that people have to keep pledging, keep working on it, and keep reminding themselves of it.

People might go to meetings to encourage their ongoing recovery and sobriety. They might attend therapy sessions individually or with a group. Regardless of what they do, people can keep working on their sobriety.

Continuing work is especially important if people relapse from their sobriety. If this occurs, people can assess what they’ve done and start working again. They can examine their pasts to find factors that were successful In their recoveries as well as factors that might not have been so successful. They can apply what they’ve learned to their current recoveries.

Such education and work can prevent people from abandoning their work and resolve entirely. After all, it seems like many people abandon their New Year’s Resolutions entirely if they break some resolutions. They figure that they’ve failed completely and that there’s no reason to work to achieve their goals.

This reasoning is wrong. If people remember that they’ve had tough times before and have triumphed despite these tough times, it might make it easier to work toward recovery again.

Positive change is not a once-a-year kind of thing. It’s an all-year, lifetime kind of goal.