As Bill Sees It

Unlimited Choice, p. 201

Any number of alcoholics are bedeviled by the dire conviction that if they ever go near A.A. they will be pressured to conform to some particular brand of faith or theology.

They just don’t realize that faith is never an imperative for A.A. membership. that sobriety can be achieved with an easily acceptable minimum of it, and that our concepts of a Higher Power and God–as we understand Him–afford everyone a nearly unlimited choice of spiritual belief and action.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In talking to a prospect, stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him.

The main thing is that he is willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.

1. Grapevine, April 1961

2. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 93 

Daily Tao / 200 -CHOOSING

One side of a ridge is cold and foggy,
The other is hot and dry.
Just by choosing where you stand,
You alter your destiny.

Those who follow Tao talk of destiny. They define destiny as the course or pattern of your life as it spontaneously takes shape. They do not think of destiny as a preordained set of circumstances. There is no rigid script for this mad stage that we are on.

Those who follow Tao then talk of location. By this, they mean something as literal as where you situate your house or where you stand politically. They think that these factors are very important. Let us imagine for moment that you had a job offer in another city far from where you were born. You move there with your family. Do you think that your life would change? We can refine this perception : If you went to a certain school, you would be educated differently. If you went into a different profession, it would change your outlook. If you lived in one neighborhood or another, you would be a different person. Every choice you make changes you.

No matter how minor or how great, you must make choices each and every minute that passes. The irony of life is that it is a one-way journey. You cannot go back, you cannot make comparisons by trying one way and then another. There are no double-blind studies when it comes to your own life. Therefore, only wisdom will suffice to guide you.

The Eye Opener - May 13 2026

Life is to a very great extent a matter of choice. It is true we do not choose our parents, our birthdays or the day on which we die. But that is about all.

It, therefore, follows we are largely what we choose to be. We made a very radical change in our lives when we chose not to drink, and what further gains we make in life will be, likewise, of our own choosing.

Hazelden Foundation

The Eye Opener - May 9 2026

God has done some mighty fine work with what the world thought was very indifferent material. St. Paul and St. Augustine were two examples of men that God chose that no personnel officer in the world today would have given the OK. AA is full of similar examples where God has chosen the godless and made him His instrument for the performance of good work.

The tremendous energy, zeal, initiative, enthusiasm and ambition that were factors in our becoming alcoholics, now diverted to better use, make us well qualified to serve in God’s cause.

Hazelden Foundation

One Day At A Time - May 5 2026

CHOOSE HAPPINESS

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”

–Oscar Wilde
If happiness were to be found on a coin, anger and frustration would be on the other side of that coin, for they are all the children of expectation. As adults, we try to recapture those special moments and feelings of our childhood by recreating them. We use them as a model for happiness, only this time we are the adults and operating the controls. Unfortunately, our expectations are not grounded in reality. Reaching that level of childhood bliss is usually either impossible or fleeting. How can you as an adult compete with the happiness of being a child?

My experience is that we usually have a set-point for happiness. And though we can feel joy and sadness, we return to that same level of happiness afterward. There are things, however, that can help change that set-point. We can come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can feed our spirit, help keep us living in the moment, and enjoying the kind of peace and wisdom that only our Higher Power can provide. It helps ground us in the truth and gets rid of unrealistic expectations. It helps to relax us as opposed to letting our mind bounce back and forth from past to future and pain to fantasy. We learn to accept our life – just as it is. Today. Now

What choices have I been making to choose happiness? I choose to go to meetings and give shares. I choose to abstain from compulsive overeating. I choose to set time for myself every day where I can organize my affairs, and help ward off stressful situations. I also try to spend time with myself in ways that will feed my soul and spirit, not just keep myself entertained until I go to bed. I give to service to others, but remember that I need to take care of myself, for when I am not strong; I have no strength to give.

One day at a time …

Today I will choose happiness.

~ Marilyn S.

FR.LEO'S - April 19 2026

FREEDOM

“Without the possibility of choice and the exercise of choice one is not a person but a member, an instrument, a thing.”

~ Archibald MacLeish 

Spirituality involves the freedom to change. Growth requires a variety of choices. My past addiction was a life of slavery because it removed my creative choice and left me obsessing about drugs and alcohol. My life, conversation, and thoughts revolved around the bottle, and I was oblivious to the true meaning of life.

My freedom to experience the spiritual power of God’s creativity was lost in the mindless craving for drugs. In this sense, drug addiction is slavery.

Today I am free to see God’s world in people, places, and things. Now I make the choice to live, love, and laugh.

I am growing in my awareness of Your multifaceted love for me.

© 2008 Leo Booth

A DAY AT A TIME - April 19 2026

Reflection for the Day

As we continue to make these vital choices and so move toward these high aspirations, our sanity returns and the compulsion of our former addictions vanishes. We learn, in the words of Plutarch, that, “A pleasant and happy life does not come from external things. Man draws from within himself, as from a spring, pleasure and joy.” Am I learning to “travel first class” inside?

Today I Pray

The grace of God has showed me how to be happy again. May the wisdom of God teach me that the source of that happiness is within me, in my new values, my new sense of self-worth, my new and open communication with my Higher Power.

Today I Will Remember

Happiness comes from within.

© 1989 by Hazelden Foundation

Just For Today - 20th October 2025

Freedom To Choose

“Enforced morality lacks the power that comes to us when we choose to live a spiritual life.” Basic Text, p.44

In our active addiction, many of us lived our lives by default. We were unwilling or unable to make choices about how we wanted to act, what we preferred to do, or even where we would live. We allowed the drugs or other people to make our most basic decisions for us. Freedom from active addiction means, among other things, the freedom to make those choices for ourselves.

Freedom of choice is a wonderful gift, but it’s also a great responsibility. Choice allows us to find out who we are and what we believe in. However, in exercising it, we’re called on to weigh our own choices and accept the consequences. This leads some of us to seek out someone who will make our choices for us-our sponsor, our home group, our NA friends-just as our disease made our choices for us when we were using. That’s not recovery.

Seeking others’ experience is one thing; abdicating personal responsibility is something else. If we don’t use the gift of freedom we’ve been given, if we refuse to accept the responsibilities that go along with it, we’ll lose that gift and our lives will be diminished. We are responsible for our own recovery and our own choices. Difficult as it may seem; we must make those choices for ourselves and become willing to accept the consequences.

Just for today: I am grateful for the freedom to live as I choose. Today, I will accept responsibility for my recovery, make my own choices, and accept the consequences.    

AS BILL SEES IT #essentialsofrecovery

~ Page 88 ~

Will Power and Choice

“We A.A.’s know the futility of trying to break the drinking obsession by will power alone. However, we do know that it takes great willingness to adopt A.A.’s Twelve Steps as a way of life that can restore us to sanity.

“No matter how grievous the alcohol obsession, we happily find that other vital choices still be made. For example, we can choose to admit that we are personally powerless over alcohol; that dependence upon a `Higher Power’ is a necessity, even if this be simply dependence upon an A.A. group. Then we can choose to try for a life of honesty and humility, of selfless service to our fellows and to `God as we understand Him.’

“As we continue to make these choices and so move toward these high aspirations, our sanity returns and the compulsion to drink vanishes.”

~ LETTER, 1966 ~

© 1967 by Alcoholics Anonymous ® World Services, Inc 

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery

WALK IN DRY PLACES #essentialsofrecovery

STICK WITH THE WINNERS

Making the Right Choices

In the world of drinking, people lead each other down paths of further destruction. In the world of AA, that same destructive process can still go on through wrong thinking. It’s possible for AA members to encourage resentments, criticism, gossip, and other dead-end practices.

That’s why people are urged to “stick with the winners” in order to find and maintain sobriety. Seek out people who are doing well in the program, people whose progress is noticeable and admirable. They can be of real help as sponsors, as friends, or simply as role models.

It’s important to remember that the winners can be from all walks of life. The first AA member in Detroit earned only a modest living, while the second Detroit member became a wealthy manufacturer after finding sobriety. In AA terms, both men were winners. They stayed sober, they stayed active in the fellowship, and they helped others.

“Sticking with the winners” does not mean we should shun people who are having difficulty with the program. It does mean we should avoid accepting ideas and ways of living that do not lead to sobriety.

I’ll spend time in the company of people who have a good record of following the program.

© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation 

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery

DAILY REFLECTIONS #essentialsofrecovery

TODAY, IT’S MY CHOICE

. . . we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.

~ ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 62 ~

With the realization and acceptance that I had played a part in the way my life had turned out came a dramatic change in my outlook. It was at this point that the A.A. program began to work for me. In the past I had always blamed others, either God or other people, for my circumstances. I never felt that I had a choice in altering my life. My decisions had been based on fear, pride, or ego. As a result, those decisions led me down a path of self-destruction. Today I try to allow my God to guide me on the road to sanity. I am responsible for my action—or inaction— whatever the consequences may be.

Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc 

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery

JUST FOR TODAY #essentialsofrecovery

Self-Pity or Recovery – It’s Our Choice

“Self-pity is one of the most destructive of defects; it will drain us of all positive energy.”

~ Basic Text, p. 77 ~

In active addiction, many of us used self-pity as a survival mechanism. We didn’t believe there was an alternative to living in our disease&151or perhaps we didn’t want to believe. As long as we could feel sorry for ourselves and blame someone else for our troubles, we didn’t have to accept the consequences of our actions; believing ourselves powerless to change, we didn’t have to accept the need for change. Using this “survival mechanism” kept us from entering recovery and led us closer, day by day, to self-destruction. Self-pity is a tool of our disease; we need to stop using it and learn instead to use the new tools we find in the NA program.

We have come to believe that effective help is available for us; when we seek that help, finding it in the NA program, self-pity is displaced by gratitude. Many tools are at our disposal: the Twelve Steps, the support of our sponsor, the fellowship of other recovering addicts, and the care of our Higher Power. The availability of all these tools is more than enough reason to be grateful. We no longer live in isolation, without hope; we have certain help at hand for anything we may face. The surest way to become grateful is to take advantage of the help available to us in the NA program and to experience the improvement the program will bring in our lives.

Just for today: I will be grateful for the hope NA has given me. I will cultivate my recovery and stop cultivating self-pity.

© 1991 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services Inc 

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery

Just For Today #essentialsofrecovery

Freedom To Choose

“Enforced morality lacks the power that comes to us when we choose to live a spiritual life.” Basic Text, p.44

In our active addiction, many of us lived our lives by default. We were unwilling or unable to make choices about how we wanted to act, what we preferred to do, or even where we would live. We allowed the drugs or other people to make our most basic decisions for us. Freedom from active addiction means, among other things, the freedom to make those choices for ourselves.

Freedom of choice is a wonderful gift, but it’s also a great responsibility. Choice allows us to find out who we are and what we believe in. However, in exercising it, we’re called on to weigh our own choices and accept the consequences. This leads some of us to seek out someone who will make our choices for us-our sponsor, our home group, our NA friends-just as our disease made our choices for us when we were using. That’s not recovery.

Seeking others’ experience is one thing; abdicating personal responsibility is something else. If we don’t use the gift of freedom we’ve been given, if we refuse to accept the responsibilities that go along with it, we’ll lose that gift and our lives will be diminished. We are responsible for our own recovery and our own choices. Difficult as it may seem; we must make those choices for ourselves and become willing to accept the consequences.

Just for today: I am grateful for the freedom to live as I choose. Today, I will accept responsibility for my recovery, make my own choices, and accept the consequences.   

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrecovery

As Bill Sees It #essentialsofrec

Unlimited Choice, p. 201

Any number of alcoholics are bedevilled by the dire conviction that if they ever go near A.A. they will be pressured to conform to some particular brand of faith or theology.

They just don’t realize that faith is never an imperative for A.A. membership. that sobriety can be achieved with an easily acceptable minimum of it, and that our concepts of a Higher Power and God–as we understand Him–afford everyone a nearly unlimited choice of spiritual belief and action.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In talking to a prospect, stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him.

The main thing is that he is willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.

1. Grapevine, April 1961
2. Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 93 

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec

Daily Tao / 200 – Choosing #essentialsofrec #Tao #Taoism #Choice #Zen

One side of a ridge is cold and foggy,
The other is hot and dry.
Just by choosing where you stand,
You alter your destiny.


Those who follow Tao talk of destiny. They define destiny as the course or pattern of your life as it spontaneously takes shape. They do not think of destiny as a preordained set of circumstances. There is no rigid script for this mad stage that we are on.

Those who follow Tao then talk of location. By this, they mean something as literal as where you situate your house or where you stand politically. They think that these factors are very important. Let us imagine for moment that you had a job offer in another city far from where you were born. You move there with your family. Do you think that your life would change? We can refine this perception : If you went to a certain school, you would be educated differently. If you went into a different profession, it would change your outlook. If you lived in one neighborhood or another, you would be a different person. Every choice you make changes you.

No matter how minor or how great, you must make choices each and every minute that passes. The irony of life is that it is a one-way journey. You cannot go back, you cannot make comparisons by trying one way and then another. There are no double-blind studies when it comes to your own life. Therefore, only wisdom will suffice to guide you.

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec

Today’s Gift #essentialsofrec #Choice

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

—William James

There are times when it’s hard to make a decision. When we go to the fair, for instance, we may want to do more things than we have time for, so we don’t know what plans to make. Waiting to decide until we see what the fair has to offer is one choice. Not deciding because we’re afraid of what may happen is also a choice. We may find ourselves thinking so much about what could happen that we miss all the exciting things going on around us.

It’s necessary to keep in mind that any course of action is a decision, but no decision is irreversible. We are free to do what we decide, and are freed by the awareness that whatever we do is based on our own decision and no one else’s.

What important decisions shall I make without fear today? 

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec

AS BILL SEES IT #essentialsofrec #BillW #Choice

 Page 88 ~

Will Power and Choice

“We A.A.’s know the futility of trying to break the drinking obsession by will power alone. However, we do know that it takes great willingness to adopt A.A.’s Twelve Steps as a way of life that can restore us to sanity.

“No matter how grievous the alcohol obsession, we happily find that other vital choices still be made. For example, we can choose to admit that we are personally powerless over alcohol; that dependence upon a `Higher Power’ is a necessity, even if this be simply dependence upon an A.A. group. Then we can choose to try for a life of honesty and humility, of selfless service to our fellows and to `God as we understand Him.’

“As we continue to make these choices and so move toward these high aspirations, our sanity returns and the compulsion to drink vanishes.”

~ LETTER, 1966 ~

© 1967 by Alcoholics Anonymous ® World Services, Inc

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec

EASY DOES IT #essentialsofrec #Choice #Recovery

CHOICES

Use wisely your power of choice.

~ Og Mandino~

Escape from physical, emotional and mental control of our old obsessions and dependencies has given all of us the freedom to make choices. But the right to choose is only an opening. We need to exercise that right and to choose well.

We learn that we cannot misuse or neglect choices once we have determined a course to take. We come to know how to choose between positive and negative, humility and arrogance, gratitude and self-centeredness, pride and dejection, high and low spirits. Knowing is not enough, however. We carry out our choices and use wisely the power of choice.

As we work our Program, we find that the fear of making decisions slips away. If our choice proves wrong, we can learn from the experience.

I am the result of any choice. I am, at any given moment of life, the sum total of the choices I have made.

©1990 by Anonymous. All rights reserved. Published by Hazelden®.

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec

DAILY REFLECTIONS #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Choice #Hurt

TODAY, IT’S MY CHOICE

. . . we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.
~ ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 62 ~

With the realization and acceptance that I had played a part in the way my life had turned out came a dramatic change in my outlook. It was at this point that the A.A. program began to work for me. In the past I had always blamed others, either God or other people, for my circumstances. I never felt that I had a choice in altering my life. My decisions had been based on fear, pride, or ego. As a result, those decisions led me down a path of self-destruction. Today I try to allow my God to guide me on the road to sanity. I am responsible for my action—or inaction— whatever the consequences may be.

Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services Inc

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec

WALK IN DRY PLACES #essentialsofrec #Choice #Decisions #Recovery

WE ALWAYS HAVE CHOICES

Decision Making

Self-pity is often rooted in the strong feeling that we have been victimized by people or conditions. “I never had a chance” and “You deceived me!” are common complaints that reveal self-pity.

It is astonishing and humbling to learn that we always have choices, even when other people or bad conditions are grinding us down. One of the great discoveries of the Twelve Step movement is that alcoholics could begin to recover no matter how helpless they had become, no matter how far they had slid into defeat and despair. Once a decision was made to seek sobriety as a primary goal, other choices and decisions became possible.

We choose our attitudes and responses. We have neither the power nor the right to control others, but we can choose to soften our attitudes toward them, and we can forgive and release people we don’t like.

We can always choose how we want to think and feel. It may take effort to break the habit of feeling victimized and sorry for ourselves, but our Higher Power will show us the way if we decide that is what we really want.

Nobody can ruffle my feathers today or make me feel oppressed and victimized. I can always make choices that will enhance my sobriety and place me on a better footing for the days ahead.

© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation

Why not sign up to get emails with all daily posts included?
Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec