Sometimes a message is conveyed better through a story. My favorite one is a famous story of Reb Zusha of Anipoli:
Reb Zusha told his students: When I come to Heaven and they ask me "Why weren't you like Abraham our forefather?" I will answer: "because I wasn't Abraham." If they inquire: "Why didn't you match the greatness of Moses?" I can answer that I wasn't Moses. Even If they try to compare me to my brother Reb Elimelech, I can still say that I wasn't Elimelech. However, If they ask me why I wasn't the way Zusha needed to be... to that I have no answer.
I repeated this story recently at one of our Jewish Recovery meetings. We went around and different recovering addicts shared the different messages they heard.
One person shared: "I don't even have to try to be someone else - it is not whom G‑d wants me to be."
Another person said: "Besides not being someone else, I have to put effort into being me. The reason for that is, that if I won't be me, then who would? If G‑d put me in this world, obviously it is because I can serve a unique purpose that no one else can."
This brought up an interesting thought from a third person, echoed by others: "My drinking didn't stem from the fact that I wanted to be somebody else, but from the fact that I didn't want to be me. My recovery starts when I start being me without the barrier of the alcohol and drugs."
