Tuesday, 11/25 - ARE ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET?

"ARE ALL YOUR EGGS
IN ONE BASKET?"

In early sobriety I was full of fears. There was fear of drinking again, fear of divorce, of being a single parent, of being responsible (for the first time ever) for the finances. There was also loads of fear about the future. There was fear of the "empty nest" knowing that the day would soon come when both the children would be gone, fear of "being alone".

An old adage came to mind -
learned from my mother:

"DON'T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET!"

I was very emotionally, mentally, and spiritually unbalanced in early sobriety. There was a desperate need for "balance" in life. One way of achieving balance is to begin putting energy, thought and time into different types of activities and interests - to open the box life had become and move out into the greater world of possibilities.

These are some of the different kinds of baskets that I identified and began to fill:

Family Basket - Working on repairing family relationship wounds where possible, developing and maintaining healthy and satisfying relationships

Basket of Sobriety - AA meetings, sponsorship, working the Alcoholics Anonymous steps, service such as speaking, leading meetings, group service positions

Basket of Spirituality - Developing spirituality - attending church, reading spiritual literature, discussing spirituality with others

Friends Basket - Maintaining friendships that were healthy and developing new friendships

Work basket - Finding satisfying and meaningful work, developing a career, expanding work skills

Hobbies and Leisure Time Basket - Exploring activities and finding interesting and pleasurable arts and crafts, dancing, cooking, reading, writing

Physical Activity Basket - Walking, using exercise equipment, using a personal trainer, swimming, bike riding

It took many, many years to identify the different baskets that would make life full and satisfying. It took commitment, willingness, and self-pushing, and being pushed by others to stay motivated to develop these different baskets and to keep putting eggs in each. The greatest motivator was "fear". As the years have gone by the motivation has changed from doing this out of fear to doing this because it brings a satisfying and full life.

I try to monitor myself from time to time to make sure I'm not getting lopsided. Do I have too many eggs in one basket? Am I reducing the number in another basket or excluding a basket altogether?

Since choosing to write about this, I realize it's time to do a spot check of these areas of my life. How healthy is my balance these days? Good question!