Christopher Connolly, known online as Get Better with Chris, has an inspirational story. The Dublin dad overcame his cocaine and alcohol addiction and turned his life around.
Now he spends his time running, working out and inspiring others to make the big changes in their lives. After attending rehab, he found his grá for running.
VIP Magazine sat down with Chris to speak about being a role model for others, the stigma of speaking about your problems and why talking to others changed his life…
Talk to us about getting involved with the Lyons campaign.
I found my truth, and I found my purpose being able to speak about what was going on for me. I think that everything that I’ve done over the past couple of years, being able to speak to your friends, being able to speak family members and speak to another human being about what’s going on with you. I’m just sharing those moments over a cup of tea. I think I was brought up off the back of tea bags and sticking kettles on. I encourage a lot of young people just to do so because people these days are very quick to go out and drink away their problems rather than talk away the problems over a cup of tea or with a friend.
You obviously know the power of a conversation. When you shared your own story, could you have imagined gaining such a loyal following of 206,000?
To be quite honest with you, no. But also, like I didn’t do for that. The reason why I did it and I spoke about what was going on for me, was because I just couldn’t hold it in anymore. It was eating me from the inside out; it was really hurting me. When I went to pursue anything in my life in terms of goals, dreams, or even trying to get sober, I was always afraid that whatever skeletons in my closet would eventually come out. Then I just realised that everybody has skeletons in their closet, everybody has done bad things, and everybody has messed up and fallen down. But not everybody speaks about. I just wanted to speak about it because I felt like it was the only way that I could free my soul. I just wanted to let the world know that I had done a lot of bad things before in my life but here I am trying the best to fix them. That’s what has helped me to get to be where I am today.
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A lot of people are struggling, but there’s a stigma about speaking out…
100 per cent. I think the reason like people put a stigma on it is because they can’t do it themselves. It’s so easy to put people down if they start speaking about their feelings or if they’re speaking about some sort of adversity or some sort of struggle that they’ve gone through. It can be a hot topic. One thing I have found is that people love all that sort of stuff, but they’re the wrong type of people to surround yourself with. You should take pride and take power in being able to reclaim your own fate, your own destiny and make a new life for yourself by speaking about what’s going on for you. What do you want to do with your life, what are your goals, what are your dreams? If money was no object, what would you like to do with your life? Put it out into the universe, into the world, tell a friend. Then just watch it become a reality. That’s what I think more people need to do, whether it be over a cup of tea, or whether it be just talking to your friend or whatever it may be. People need people, people need friends, and people need each other.
As Irish people we are very hard on ourselves and each other. How many times do we hear, “Your one has notions!” So we need to shake that?
Yes. People will always put you down until you start to pull it off. People only clap when you’re standing on the podium. People don’t encourage you when you’re trying to get through the s**t. That’s why you need the right people. I still, to this day, go to a lot of struggles with my mental health. But the only way to find a way through it is to keep speaking about, and that’s what people need to do continuously. Keep talking about your s*** in the best possible way?
I love helping people. There’s something in my heart and soul that I feel the only currency to be able to help me feel fulfilled in this life is through connecting with other people. I just want people to feel a sense of belief, I want people to feel a sense of encouragement. I genuinely believe that that’s my goal, and that’s my purpose now on this earth, to be able to help people and to encourage people to help each other.
What does running mean to you?
I love running, but I also hate running, and that probably makes no sense to anybody. But the reason why I hate running and love running is because there are some days like today where I really struggle. I’m giving myself a hard time, but as I’m starting to run and going through it all I’m starting to self-soothe myself. I’m trying to correct all those negative ways of thinking and talking to myself as I’m running. Then when the physical pain kicks in and when you get tired and fatigued, then you need to do a little bit extra. Then when I stop running and when I go home my mind is free. My mind is calm I’ve got a jumpstart on all those negative voices. We can be subject to mass overthinking and constantly trying to pick apart our own physce, or own image. We are constantly trying to put ourselves down each and every single day, but when I run, it’s almost like I’m delving into that rather than pushing it down. And you just feel on top of the world, you know.
You work out with your daughter. Tell us about the importance of sharing these values to your children?
It’s very important to me and I don’t look at it as a chore. I don’t look at it like I’m trying to instil something into her. I just love working out with her. And she loves working out with me. I grew up around drinking culture, my parents would be out drinking or I’d be out in the parks with my da. So I started to download all that in my mind. Whereas I want my daughter to be able to download all the good things in her mind. Kids don’t listen to what they say, but they watch everything, and they download everything subconsciously. All I want to keep doing is showing my daughter the best possible way to live your life, by me living my life and hopefully it will rub off onto her.
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If you could go back to the Chris you were five years ago, what would you say to him?
Keep doing what you’re doing, you’re going to get there. At the very start a lot of people made a tick out of me. That’s one thing that reoccurs every time I try to take on a new challenge or try to express myself a little bit more. People start to speak ill about you, they’ll try to put you down and to be quite honest, they won’t believe in you. But I honestly always believed in myself and I still do. I do everything I need to do to get the other side. I always knew, back then, that I would get to where I am today. But I still want to do more. It’s a never-ending progression of getting better. That’s something I truly believe in. So every single day, and every single way, we develop and it’s an opportunity to get better.
As Irish, this is a question we hate to answer. But Chris, are you proud of yourself?
Am I proud? No. I don’t believe in pride, I don’t believe in celebrating anything. But what I am is very grateful. That’s one of the biggest things that I am in my life. I’m grateful for all the little things. The more that I’m grateful for, the more praise I give to this universe, these people and everybody around me, the more life just gives me. That’s one thing that I’ve always said, don’t look to be proud, but look to be grateful.
Chris has teamed up with Lyons to #PutTheTalkIntoTea which aims to get people to have more face to face conversations around Ireland. Find out more here.