Robert's Excellent Adventure

Last Year was not Robert's best year. Not the first half, anyway. He was smoking too much, drinking too much and he couldn't stand his job any more. Getting to sleep was a chore, so the stress at work was building steadily. Robert was having trouble keeping his apartment clean. His car was a mess, his self esteem was dropping like a rock and he was gaining lots of weight from his fast food drive-thru habit. In short, Robert had some issues.

Early June, Friday night, sitting at his computer with a beer, whiskey bottle and the ever-present overflowing ash tray. No plans for the weekend; nothing good, anyhow. Robert just wanted to escape from himself, his present life and his problems. Occasional thoughts of suicide would pop into his mind. But that wasn't like him! Robert used to be a happy guy - on top of his finances, dating, popular at work and seemingly on an upward career track. This night, the former Robert was but a memory in the minds of those who hadn't seen him in a while. Many would be shocked to see what Robert had become in so short a time. Luckily, things were about to change.

So what was different about this particular Friday night? A spark of hope alive in Robert's brain, or maybe the part of him that was disgusted with himself, somehow guided him to read some very interesting material on the internet. In his buzzed state, Robert's mouse seemed to have a mind of its own for a period - or maybe it was fate! The words jumped out at him like an emergency warning and a seed was planted.

A couple of particularly inspirational quotes had hit home with Robert; the first one, "First we make our habits and then our habits make us," he found by accident right here on the Sprudio front page. As he scrolled down, scanning for who knows what, there it was (the second quote) - "It's never too late to become what you might have been." Robert glared at the whiskey bottle. "You're gone," he muttered under his breath, and he looked around the cluttered room with beginnings of a new attitude. But could he really do this? Could he catch up with all the organizing that was now such a huge chore? Just then the third one hit him: "Success comes in cans, failure in can'ts." Robert stayed up and read some more about visualization and then fell asleep easily for a change.

"Wow!" thought Robert upon waking on Saturday morning. What a weird dream that was. And what was that music I was listening to? Why do I feel excited? If a little reading and thnking can do this, what will actual effort do? Robert already knew what he wanted to do all day. Starting with a shower and breakfast, he headed out for a haircut. Then he stopped at the store for some cleaning supplies (and a new notebook) on the way home! By the end of the day, Robert was well on his way to getting his old self back - and it felt great!

Our hero started drinking lots of water, listening to music and eating better. He picked up a couple of subliminal CDs for sleeping better and losing weight, and one for quitting smoking. That was the toughest thing that Robert had in mind, stopping smoking at the same time as dieting. So he decided to smoke a little less every day; this shouldn't be to difficult, not in the beginning anyhow. As for the notebook, it turned out to be hard keeping the plans realistic - he would write too many things and not get them done, so he learned to break up the plan into manageable steps. After only a week, Robert was feeling human again and knew the trend would continue. People were more friendly to him at work; he started paying attention to his career again, and decided to sign up for a couple of classes in business management.

Fast forward to today, it's December already and Robert has a new car, a new girlfriend, and he just picked up a silent subliminal CD to play along with his own favorite music. The title of this one is "Success and Prosperity." To date, Robert has lost more than twenty pounds - and he smokes less than half as much as before. He's still working on that one.

Robert's (not his real name) story is not very unusual, thank goodness; in fact, many of us find ourselves on some downward trend or other from time to time. Do you have to hit bottom before bouncing back? Heck no, you only need to make up your mind to spring into positive action! The other ingredient for success is your stubborn will to succeed. If you lose a battle, do whatever it takes to rejoin the war! Self-help audio is not for everyone, but music can be a great companion and the human subconscious loves it.