The One Day At A Time Recovery Podcast

Today I sit down with Peter Bailey, author of Be Epic: Reframe Your Past to Navigate Your Future , president of the Prouty Project, and a man with 43 years of sobriety. Peter started drinking at 13, got sober at 22 on Block Island, Rhode Island, and has spent decades since helping people in recovery and corporate leadership see their stories through a completely different lens — one rooted in Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey model. In this episode, you'll learn: How reframing your past can turn shame into your greatest superpower What the Hero's Journey model is and how it maps directly onto recovery Why comparison is a "disease" that disconnects us from ourselves and others How to use "defense mechanisms that don't work anymore" as your 4th step inventory The power of celebrating recovery milestones and daily wins Peter's daily armor-up practice: the sobriety coin, sunrise ritual, and 10th step Why willingness to be willing is itsel...

What do you do when you’ve had a $28 million business exit — and then watch nearly all of it disappear? If you’re Diane Prince, you eventually find Al-Anon, do the work, and rebuild a life and business that’s more fulfilling than anything you had before. In this episode, Arlina sits down with Diane — entrepreneur, business strategist, and Al-Anon member of 17 years — for one of the most honest conversations about recovery, money, and entrepreneurship we’ve had on this show. The Exploding Doormat Diane didn’t grow up with alcohol in her home. But she grew up with rage — a mother who saved her pleasant face for the outside world and unleashed her anger at home. That environment created what Diane calls the “exploding doormat” cycle: swallowing feelings, avoiding conflict, staying in denial — until everything finally blows. This pattern followed her into her marriage, her business partnerships, and her parenting. It took two specific moments — firing a family member who had been terr...

What if the biggest obstacle to your success isn’t your skill set, your circumstances, or even your past — but your addiction to staying stuck? That’s the central thread of my conversation with Peter Moulton, a 35-year recovery veteran, entrepreneur, and author of  UP: A Journey of Intention, Focus, and Execution . Peter has spent nearly three decades coaching entrepreneurs and leaders, and what he’s discovered cuts right through the noise: most of us don’t fail because we lack information. We fail because we’re unwilling to be seen. The Three-Year Prison Peter describes a pattern he calls the “three-year prison” — the tendency for people to rise to their current level of competence, then repeat the same cycle over and over without ever breaking through. The culprit? Imposter syndrome. The fear that if we become truly brilliant and visible, we’ll be exposed. So we self-sabotage. We stay small. We hide. In recovery, this shows up all the time. We know what we’re supposed to do —...

You Don’t Have to Lose Everything First: What Step One Really Teaches Us If you’ve ever looked at the 12 steps and thought that’s not for me, you’re not alone. I thought the same thing for years. The God stuff felt like a barrier. The word “powerless” felt insulting. And the idea that my life had to look like a wreck before I qualified? That kept me stuck longer than anything else. This week on the podcast, I sat down with Sonia Kahlon — founder of EverBlume and host of the Sisters in Sobriety podcast — to start working the 12 steps together, live, on air. Sonia has nearly nine years of sobriety and had never formally worked the steps. Sound familiar? She’s doing it now, and we’re bringing you along for the whole journey. What Powerlessness Actually Means Step One is this: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable. The key word most people miss is over alcohol. Not over your whole life. Not over your career or your relationships or your sen...

What if the secret to lasting change isn’t a single powerful moment, but thousands of tiny, unremarkable ones? That’s the central idea behind Eric Zimmer’s powerful new book,  How a Little Becomes a Lot: The Art of Small Changes for a More Meaningful Life . Eric is the host of  The One You Feed  podcast and a long-time figure in the recovery community with 26 years of sobriety. In Episode 424, he and I explored why real transformation happens slowly — and why that’s actually good news. The Hammer and the Chisel Eric opens his book with the story of Dasrath Manjhi, an Indian man who lost his wife because the road to the hospital was impossibly long. After her death, he took a hammer and chisel to the mountain separating his village from the town and spent decades chipping away at it — enduring ridicule and seemingly no progress — until he had carved a path that cut travel time by 90%. Eric calls this the ultimate story of how a little becomes a lot: not dynamite, just c...