95: Do Stuff That Actually Works

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We are literally in this realm of recovery, of keeping it small, of eating the elephant out a bite at a time.
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This is the Addiction Recovery Podcast with Steven T.
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Ginsburg, founder of Restore Detox Centers in Sunny, California.
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Enjoy your experience.
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Steven, great to be together with you again today.
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I want to talk about this topic that I've been obsessively thinking about lately, which is just doing stuff that works.
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Let's just kick things off with that.
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Um, I'm gonna explain a little bit more, but I just wanted to say hi and welcome you to the show.
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Brother, good to be back together.
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I love when we get a chance to put the brain trust together and just share our hearts with people out there and just looking forward to everything that we'll get for each other and for others today.
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So I I think the biggest thing is with this idea of doing stuff that works, sometimes it comes out of frustration, honestly, talking with people.
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Maybe it's frustration with myself, maybe it's with past experiences.
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And this isn't to make anybody feel bad, right?
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Or to say that I have everything figured out, because I absolutely do not.
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And I've definitely gone down this path before.
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But recently, so like I I do jujitsu, and so I go to this wrestling class on Wednesdays, and and I've shared this before in other episodes, but I'll just kind of repeat myself to tee things up.
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I remember one of the days he called somebody to the front, he's like, Hey, come and take me down, you know, and and they're gonna do this takedown, and he's like, That's not gonna work.
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And they're like, Oh, it's gonna work.
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He's like, Okay, try it on me.
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So they shoot in and he pushes their head to the side, wraps their arm um around his, and then he just like throws them to the ground.
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And I was like, Oh, dang, you know.
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But then he said, just do stuff that works.
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And so I think about life where you know, you come across people, and I I fall into this camp as well, but it's like, oh, I'm gonna do this lemon water diet, or I'm gonna just drink lemon water for five days, and then it's gonna cleanse my body, and then you know, then I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna lose weight.
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And it's like, then they do it, it doesn't work, so they try something else, and there's a new fat, and there's a new thing, and it's like it's so simple.
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Eat whole foods, work out, and consume less calories than like then you need.
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Um, and and this isn't an episode about waking or you know, diet or exercise or anything like that.
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It just comes down to just doing stuff what works.
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So I look at my life, and there are things that I do, and I'm like, Steven, why do I do all this stuff?
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I can just simplify and just focus on what works and just do that.
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But sometimes we just like run around in circles and do all this weird crap that doesn't work when we can just simplify and just do the stuff that works.
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What are your thoughts on all that?
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I love all of it, and I'm very taken with all of it, and I love the analogies with the jujitsu, and it can be applied to anything and the diet, and it should be applied to anything.
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And you and I have had this conversation numerous times before, and we've touched on this here before.
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Like with jujitsu, I'm I'm kind of stuck on that.
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So I like that.
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You know, if there's a hold, and I don't do jujitsu, but you do, and you're really good at it.
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But if there's a hold and a takedown that works, and there's a method and an approach and a way you go about it to have the objective result occur, that pathway to it, that formula to it, that plan to it and for it, it's executed and it's done again and again and again and again until it becomes second nature, correct?
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Right, right, and that's the way it works, and it works.
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And then you know now I'm bringing back home in Alcoholics Anonymous at the start of every meeting.
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At the start of every meeting, you read a portion.
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This is cool, this is the reality.
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I love it.
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We read a portion of chapter five, how it works.
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We read that at the start of every meeting, Steve.
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Every AA meeting reads that.
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Why you know why it tells people how it works, and that and that writing is literally how it works, and nothing needs to be added, nothing needs to be detracted, it's constructed in a fashion that leads overall to an ongoing remission and reprieve, and it's proven, and it's not easy, but it's simple.
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However, I am complicated, and as long as I am not willing to complicate how it works and the things I do that encompass and entail how it works, nothing will get in the way today.
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Today, which is all I've got and all I need of my 24 hours of remission and reprieve for my spiritual malady.
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If I'm gonna complicate it and like nail down a foot and then be surprised I'm running in a circle or get my own way, or be volatile, or be restless, irritable, and discontent, it's gonna be the opposite of how it works, it's gonna be how it won't work until I get myself on track again.
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Yeah, no, it perfectly said.
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And in that, I mean, we talk about the simplicity of recovery and the simplicity of the program, everything.
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I mean, it's just simple.
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It's funny because if you want to waste your time, okay, if you ever just want to waste your time, there's on YouTube, there's this channel, and it's like McDojo Life.
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And so basically, on it has a bunch of shorts, and it's shorts of like taekwondo, karate, jujitsu, wrestling, like all the martial arts, different schools or different videos that are floating around on the internet that are absolutely ridiculous.
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So, like, for example, there's one where this guy, this sensei or whatever you want to call him, he has a giant, like giant, like two by four, but it's really like a two by six.
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I mean, it's massive, and he's singing it at this other guy, and he's like, block it, you know, and and they make fun of it because it's like, all right, have you ever been in a fight with somebody holding a two by six?
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Right, trying to attack you with a two by six?
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Like, what are you like, what are you doing?
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You know, this is so impractical.
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Or there's another one where it's like if somebody's pointing a gun, you know, what you do is you grab the side of the gun and it's like, okay, then he does an experiment of firing the gun with a piece of chicken strapped to it and it blows the chicken apart because when it cocks back, you know, like the force would blow your hand off, you know.
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Even if you didn't get shot, grabbing the gun like that would blow your hand off.
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So it's just it's ridiculous things that people try to overly complicate in the in the world of martial arts, and and and this is everywhere, and like we all do it, you've done it.
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It applies to everything, and it's like, why are we overcomplicating it when it's literally that simple?
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And we've talked about AA and you know how long AA has been around, and they've had a lot of years to figure this out.
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91 years, and it's based off of 91 years, millions of people globally have been helped and continue to be helped and divinely appointed.
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And and I think there's some correlation there, and I kind of want to stay on both ends of the world because I like that jujitsu is coming up and it feels right to me.
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You know, in jujitsu, you have the sensei, and to me that's like a sponsor, you know, the the sinsei is a this like remarkable, and I also view those as like really kind, disciplined people.
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And a sponsor is this like remarkable, kind, disciplined person, and they are teachers.
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And then, you know, when the when the student is ready, the the teacher will be provided, and there's a willingness, like you surrender to the teacher's experience, strength, and hope.
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And this thing has lineage, like your world with jujitsu does, my world with recovery does, and it's it's generational.
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Like I have sponsees, and they will ultimately sponsor guys the way I sponsor them.
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And some of my sponsees have sponsees, and I am their grand sponsor.
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That all is really about, I'm laughing because like I love it.
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That's really about something that's not nothing.
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We're not splitting atoms or doing goodwill hunting, we're doing physics, like we are literally in this realm of recovery, of keeping it small, of eating the elephant how a bite at a time.
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In the doctor's opinion, and I'm gonna wrap up on this on this phrase, but but you really triggered me, which I like.
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You know, in the doctor's opinion, they they talk about it's unbelievable when these alcoholics get together and they follow a few simple rules, they abstain, they remain sober.
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The few simple rules are the composition of how it works of the first 164 pages of Alcoholics Anonymous, they encapsulate the 12 steps, and all of that embodies a program of recovery that again, on a daily basis, offers and produces and provides a remission and a reprieve.
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Yeah.
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And I think it's like in our human nature, we try to figure out these shortcuts, yes, or we try to do it our own way, or maybe there's some hack online that says you could do it this.
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But like we've talked about before, I guarantee you it's not gonna work.
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Like they they leave Restore and they say, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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You know, these meetings, yeah.
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You know, I'm gonna do the meetings every other week, and I don't it's not like I need a sponsor telling me what to do.
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I'm totally fine.
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And then guess what?
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They relapse.
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And it's like, okay, next, next time more grit, more discipline.
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I'm gonna do it this way, and then they relapse.
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And it's like, okay, the steps in the programs, the program is very simple.
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Yes, just do the program.
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It's it's literally that simple, and I think it it just applies to everything.
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Like I said, whether it's jujitsu, whether it's you know, my sleeping patterns, whatever it is in life, business, finance, we just make up all this crap, and we have all these stories that aren't even true, and we do all these roundabout things, and it's like just do the thing.
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I mean, just do the thing.
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So, Steve, seriously, I feel like you and I could do hours and hours and hours on this.
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Like, we just it's not even our fault, it's the world we get in our own way.
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Yeah.
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I mean, I I was talking in the meeting today, today, and I I held up my phone and I'm like, look, I don't know how this thing works, but I'll tell you one thing, I might as well have it bolted to my head.
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Like my emails on it, I run my business on it, I text my wife on it, I track my kids on it, all the things.
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I don't know how it works, though, but I know it works.
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You know, I don't know exactly which facet of Alcoholics Anonymous is keeping me sober.
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So I apply all those facets of the few simple rules and collectively, along with a power greater than myself, which is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I am participating in another day's sobriety.
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And it's those same elements, much to your point, in all these different walks and shapes and ways of our life.
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Like, you know, if we just take a step back and like dummy it down a little bit for all our sakes and just be in some joy and gratitude and have some hope and just really forge ahead and enjoy the journey, things go really well.
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But when we complicate it, when we get in our own way, when we overstep, it just becomes a runaway train and it's a disaster.
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Yeah, no, I absolutely agree.
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And this this is the last thing I'm gonna say.
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And and usually I try to be pretty sensitive, but I'm gonna talk to myself.
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Okay, this is my 20-year-old self.
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So I could be as harsh if I want.
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Okay.
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So when I look back in my 20s, there's a point in my life, Steven, I was depressed, I felt like crap.
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I like my friendships weren't that great.
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I was just like a miserable person, right?
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And when I look back on that, I'm like, no wonder.
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Okay, I smoking pot all the time, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
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So of course, like when you end the day smoking your a pack of cigarettes and smoking the, you know, smoking the devil's lettuce out of a bong, like you're gonna wake up coughing up a lung.
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You're not gonna feel super great in the morning, right?
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Then you grab a cup of coffee, you grab some Burger King.
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This is me, right?
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Right, smoke a cigarette on the way to work, get to work before I even start work, smoke another cigarette.
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And like my whole life's like consumed by this stuff.
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Then I'm thinking, okay, when am I gonna get high next?
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And it's like, okay, so then my business suffers, and then I, you know, financially I struggle, and then you know, my friendships aren't there because I'm isolating myself.
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Because instead of hanging out with them, I just want to go home and you know, drink some wine by myself and smoke some weed, and all this stuff.
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I look back on those days and I'm like, shut your mouth, Steve.
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Yeah, bro, I can still relate.
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Complaining, oh mom, you know, like life's so hard and it's this, and it's like no wonder.
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And like I said, I could be harsh on myself, and sometimes I think people need to hear this.
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This is so I'm speaking to the group of people who are like, Steve, just give it to me direct.
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You know, don't sugarcoat it.
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So if if this is you, like this is this is the message I'm conveying to you because I'm conveying it to myself.
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But there's times where we just have to look at our life and be like, really, really, we're complaining about this.
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Look at how we're living, or like just stop doing weird stuff and just do the stuff that works, like simplify, just simplify and do the stuff that works.
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Awesome.
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And I think it could bring so much joy into our lives.
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That's why I'm so passionate about it because I want everybody to have joy and feel love and peace and everything else.
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So I'm gonna turn it over to you for the last thought, Stephen.
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I mean, it's just it's so perfectly said on your part.
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I I want to leave it there too.
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It it's just, and we all have our own version of that story.
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Like, how in the world are we supposed to feel good when there's nothing good in us?
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How in the world are we supposed to feel good when there's all those toxins and everything else and toxic thinking and tax, and we're just on this hamster wheel going nowhere towards nothing, and just the misery.
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And I just it reminds me of us throwing ourselves in a hole.
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Well, okay, there's a good start.
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Well, let's get up and get out and like like some self-care, some spiritual self-care, some emotional nurturing, some prayer time, like go for a walk, look at the water, sit in the sunshine, drink some water, and give please like that's what I want to say.
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Everyone, please give yourself a break, give yourself some grace, like love on yourself and know like this is how we live.
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Like, don't put us up for saying it.
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You got two guys here who are broken men who fall short.
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Sorry, Steve, not to overstep and speak for you.
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I fall short all the time.
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We're both fallible, we fall short, but but we have joyful and joy-filled lives because we do joyful and joy-filled things.
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And that's why we're even able to get on here and talk and just share our experience, strength, and hope.
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And so I want to invite whoever is out there, like if it hurts or it's hard, like there's something better waiting.
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And and I want to let you know like, we're all in.
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We want to know about it and we want to discuss it with you, and we want to hear your questions, and we want to weigh in and support you in everything.
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So just we love you.
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We are for you.
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Steve, thank you for your part.
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This is incredible, and everyone have a safe and sober day.