The Core

The 10 Things are the practical framework at the center of Recovery Capital Project.

They grew from recovery capital and years of working alongside people navigating recovery, reentry, change, pressure, limited resources, and real life.

They aren't steps to complete or a formula to follow.

They're ten practical places to look when something needs to be restored, something useful needs to be preserved, or something new needs to be built.

The 10 Things

1. Be Accurate
See what is actually happening—not what fear, habit, pressure, or somebody else's story says is happening.

2. Worthy & Able
Worth isn't something to earn before moving. Neither is the ability to participate in your own life.

3. Travel Light
Notice what you're carrying. Keep what belongs. Put down what doesn't.

4. Get Off the Island
People, information, perspective, relationships, and resources matter. We aren't meant to do everything alone.

5. Buy Time
Create enough space between what happens and what happens next to have some choice.

6. Un/Limited Resources
Some resources are limited. Some can be restored, shared, developed, or found. Know the difference and work accordingly.

7. The Business
Treat your life, work, recovery, relationships, and resources as something worth stewarding sustainably.

8. Be Where Your Feet Are
Come back to what is here, what is real, and what can actually be worked with now.

9. Expect Bad Calls
Things will go wrong. People will get things wrong. So will you. Build enough room into the system to keep moving when they do.

10. Restore Power
Notice where choice, agency, participation, and useful action are available—and use them.

Restore. Preserve. Build.

The 10 Things don't assume everyone needs the same thing.

Sometimes something has been depleted, disrupted, or lost and needs to be restored.

Sometimes something is already useful, healthy, effective, or sustaining and needs to be preserved.

Sometimes something isn't there yet and needs to be built.

A person, team, or organization may be doing all three at once—and may be restoring one Thing, preserving another, and building another.

That's the point.

The framework isn't a sequence. It's a way to look at what's actually happening and decide where attention may be useful.

Different Rooms. Same Framework.

The setting may change.

Recovery. Reentry. Burnout and overload. Life transitions. Helping professions. Teams. Organizations. Relationships.

The examples, questions, and emphasis can change with the room.

The 10 Things don't have to.