Idiot: Life Stories from the Creator of Help Helen Smash

by Laura Clery

But I suppose bravery is not being unafraid, it’s being shit-your-pants-scared-out-of-your-mind and doing the damn thing anyway.

My new mantra was trust God, clean house, help others.

Trust God meant that I needed to trust the power of the universe/penguins and stop trying to run the fucking show. Ultimately, I don’t have control over everything in the world, or really much at all. Accepting that brings peace.

Clean house meant that I needed to check in every day with myself to ask: Am I resentful? Do I owe amends? Have I been selfish, self-seeking, dishonest, or afraid? If so, what’s a better way? It meant making sure that my side of the street is clean. It’s also about recog...

Help others . . . that’s pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? It’s so simple, but it’s a huge part of my sobriety. I started giving to others what was so freely given to me. Kristal, this force of nature in a tiny dress, gave hours and hours of her time to me to teach me how to live without drinking. So I did the sam...

This was a huge shift for me. I had been so self-obsessed. Completely consumed with what I could get ...

Everything was about ...

When I made my day about being rigorously honest and giving, I felt happy.

One of the many slogans in AA is: “You can’t get clean off yesterday’s shower.” One day with no shower: tolerable. Two days: yuck. Three days: you’re just plain offensive. Trust God, clean house, help others. Every day.

I believe that people can change. If they have the willingness, if they see a need within themselves, they can reach down within and change. I hate when people use the phrase “you are who you are” as an excuse to let themselves be less than the person they could be.

Allen goes through life leading with love, and Maggie leads with fear. I learned this from reading A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, which says that we are constantly in a state of either love or fear, and these states control the choices we make and the way we live.

You’re an artist. You make art. Stay in the action and out of the results.”

All the aspects of the Law of Attraction are pretty far out there, but what I took from it is this: rather than focusing on what you don’t want, focus on what you do want. Don’t be afraid to dream as big as you want. What you are thinking, what you tell yourself, can manifest.

I am no better and no worse than anyone else. I am worthy. I am happy.

Now I was no longer afraid to fail.

My brain has said so many mean things to me. I never want my brain to talk to me in THAT TONE AGAIN. You hear me, Brain?

that a shift in your focus from what you don’t want to what you do want is more powerful than we could ever imagine, and it works in mysterious ways.

stay in the action and out of the results.

If you define yourself by how others see you, then suddenly you’re nothing to even yourself.

Tony Robbins’s Hour of Power.

That’s my morning. As Tony Robbins recommends, if you don’t have an hour of power, then have thirty minutes to thrive or fifteen minutes to fulfillment or two minutes to tango. Two minutes is surely better than none. Every morning this hour leads me to start my day with a mindset of abundance. Abundance of friendship, love, and laughter. If you feel like you have it, then it will come.

and started walking through fear and wanting to be loving and tolerant and forgiving and of service. I decided that I want to be a good person.