After hitting an emotional, moral bottom as a rabid drug addict, I entered a substance abuse treatment center called Challenges in 2005. I kept a notebook/journal with me at all times, and wrote in it anything that I found significant or worth remembering. Looking back on it for the first time in over 6 years, I find many of the principles that carried me through my darkest days still exist for me today. Here are some excerpts from the notebook.:

• why does thinking about my inner child make me sad?
• Pain motivates. keep the pain up front- remember it. 
• "Progress Not Perfection"
• you are who you were five minutes ago
• "I am my own Jesus. I am also my own Pontius Pilate.
• what the fuck is up with all the powdered coffee creamer?
• i don't know if it is the cold or the honesty that is making me shiver
• "speak when you're angry and you will say the biggest speech you'll ever regret"
• 15% of addicts stay clean for a year with regular attendance in NA/AA. the other 85% of us are fucked.
• "the only way out is through"
• "for a lesson to be learned, it must be lived"
• anything negative anyone has to say about me is none of my business

...more to come.