065: 2020 in Review! What a crazy year it's been!065: 2020 in Review! What a crazy year it's been!
You're Sober! Now What?
Tamar Medford reflects on 2020 as a turning point for her recovery, coaching work and sense of purpose. She talks about redefining recovery, tackling imposter syndrome and helping people find their spark beyond simply staying sober.
35:30•7 Dec 2020
From Survival to Spark: Tamar Medford’s Big Lessons From 2020
Episode Overview
- Recovery can apply to relationships, health, food and more, not just substances.
- Extra time during 2020 can be used to build new habits, skills and projects.
- Surrounding yourself with supportive, growth-minded people helps reignite motivation.
- Imposter syndrome and negative self-talk can be softened by taking action and seeing results.
- Clarifying your purpose (ikigai) can help you move from simply being sober to feeling excited about life again.
“Recovery is the return to a normal state of health, mind, and strength. A process of regaining control over something that's lost.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This candid year-in-review from host Tamar Medford looks back at 2020 as both a storm and a springboard. Speaking from long-term recovery, Tamar talks about how the sudden halt to work travel during COVID gave her unexpected time and space to ask, "Now what?" Instead of staying stuck, she channelled that extra time into building her coaching practice, serving clients in recovery, and doubling down on her own growth.
She shares honestly about imposter syndrome, limiting beliefs, and the fear of not being "qualified" enough, and how seeing real results in her clients slowly shifted that inner dialogue. One of the big themes here is going beyond the narrow idea of recovery as just drugs or alcohol. As Tamar puts it, "Recovery is the return to a normal state of health, mind, and strength.
A process of regaining control over something that's lost." She talks about recovery from toxic relationships, food issues and self-sabotage, and how her work now focuses on helping people get their spark back once the crisis phase has passed. You'll hear how a five-day "discover your ikigai" challenge helped people recognise strengths they couldn’t see in themselves, sometimes bringing them to tears.
That experience pushed Tamar to create a new "beyond recovery" workshop and to rebrand her show to "The Road Beyond Recovery" to match where her heart really is: supporting people in long-term recovery who feel restless, underused, or stuck in jobs they dread. Tamar also reflects on writing her first book, *Hope Elevated*, starting a second book called *Beyond Recovery*, and using painful past experiences as fuel to help others.
If you’re sober, stable, but asking "What next?", this honest check-in on a chaotic year might nudge you to think bigger about your own potential. What could your life look like beyond just staying sober?
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