I was a junkie. I was a drunkard. I was a super-consumer of everything and everyone—anything that would take me away from reality and put me elsewhere. Food had no taste. No matter how decadent the experience, I couldn’t be happy. My insatiable appetite for substance, drink and company was bottomless. Like a vampire to the sunlight, I was deathly afraid of the present moment. I hated who I was, what I had become and where I appeared to be going. I blamed the world. I had no accountability. I contemplated running away and even tried taking the coward’s way out with a few close-call overdoses. But even then, I failed because I was too scared to really go through with it. I was weak at the core. Or maybe…just maybe…it’s because I wasn’t ready to die yet…I wasn’t ready to give up…I wasn’t ready to quit.

As I worked on myself, I avoided focusing on the result and instead focused on the steps—the process. I found that by living consistently in a manner that I admire, I began personifying my beliefs. And that’s exactly what I did through nutrition, exercise, reading, writing, meditation and self-improvement. I had to create the man that I never had in my own life, a hero, fully become him, and now give that person away to the world.

I am finally alive. Living happy, healthy, and wealthy in mind, body and soul.