According to Adam Jablin, he had everything at the time of his demise: A beautiful wife, a newborn baby, a gorgeous home, a sculpted body, and a steady and lucrative career in his family business, third generation. That story ended, at the beginning! With hindsight, he was missing the foundation from which all this richness is expressed within a person: Living in a spirit of freedom.
For Adam, the primary source that blocked his freedom – was fear. This was a fear that caused great suffering for him. A famous psychologist once stated, “If you get rid of the pain, before you’ve answered it’s questions, you get rid of the self along with it.” Adam chose to ‘get rid of the pain,” before “answering it’s questions.” His primary choice of escape and of distraction, was alcohol. Essentially, Adam chose to “get rid of himself.” Now fast forward, within his ongoing sobriety: Adam comes to define fear, within the context of an acronym: False – Evidence – Appearing – Real. Additionally, Adam insists that “mastering fear is just as big” as exercising a “mindset” within life.
Over time, deluged in alcohol, and without any indication of cessation, his loving family intervened: Never an easy task, nor one that reaps immediate rewards, awareness or appreciation. This is when Adam was introduced to a treatment center. And unbeknownst to him, this imposition will be the beginning of him experiencing an incommensurable paradigm shift, about himself.
For Adam, treatment was not just about learning, but also about retrieving. There is a Latin term called, anamnesis – not forgetting. This aptly describes Adam’s rediscovery about himself: Within the safe environment of a treatment program, he was allowed to remember those early childhood memories which influenced a redirection, away from his core. As Adam states, “Getting sober woke up gifts…but I was always wired for it.” Revelation, at its very core.
As most people who are able to grasp the core of their addictions, they are aware that ALL people are NOT as if an island unto ourselves. Though Adam gives much positive recognition of his formal treatment at the center, he also acknowledges, a near equal value, to having had a “mentor and spiritual father who he insists was – “a God send!”
Adam’s journey towards greater degrees of sobriety has him rethinking such things as distinguishing “Success” from “Fulfillment.” He is adamant in distinguishing the two from one another. For Adam, success is about a product, money, prestige, awards. Fulfillment, on the other hand, is about “living grace, purpose, and clarity.” And he adds, it’s a “privileged way of life.”
Adam’s ideas on fulfillment largely inform him of how he develops and maintains relationships with others: He doesn’t “look at others as competition.” Moreso, he firmly believes that, just as he has a ‘right voice,” so too does every other person. What gets distilled from that viewpoint is self-confirmation that his ongoing sobriety leads him into a deeper sense of authenticity.
For Adam, living with authenticity – can be – antithetical to living with financial freedom. Without any intention on his part of proselytizing, he simply believes, based on his own personal experience and knowledge of others, that while someone can be “living free financially,” may “not be free spiritually.” And for Adam, “spiritually” has an inherent pragmatic effect: To be a difference, it’s got to make a difference – within ourselves or amongst our neighbors.
Adam appeals to those who are suffering: That he may be able to “show what’s behind the veil.”
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