Who Really Gets Better?“We can also use the steps to improve our attitudes. Our best thinking got us into trouble. We recognize the need for change.”
Basic Text, p. 53When new in recovery, most of us had at least one person we just couldn’t stand. We thought that person was the rudest, most obnoxious person in the program. We knew there was something we could do, some principle of recovery we could practice to get over the way we felt about this person—but what? We asked our sponsor for guidance. We were probably assured, with an amused smile, that if we just kept coming back, we’d see the person get better. That made sense to us. We believed that the steps of NA worked in the lives of everyone. If they could work for us, they could work for this horrible person, too.Time passed, and at some point we noticed that the person didn’t seem as rude or obnoxious as before. In fact, he or she had become downright tolerable, maybe even likeable. We got a pleasant jolt as we realized who had really gotten better. Because we had kept coming back, because we had kept working the steps, our perception of this person had changed. The person who’d plagued us had become “tolerable” because we’d developed some tolerance; he or she had become “likeable” because we’d developed the ability to love.So who really gets better? We do! As we practice the program, we gain a whole new outlook on those around us by gaining a new outlook on ourselves.Just for today: As I get better, so will others. Today, I will practice tolerance and try to love those I meet.
~ Page 86 ~
Room for Improvement
We have come to believe that A.A.’s recovery Steps and Traditions represent the approximate truths which we need for our particular purpose. The more we practice them, the more we like them. So there is little doubt that A.A. principles will continue to be advocated in the form they stand now.
If our basis are so firmly fixed as all this, then what is there left to change or to improve?
The answer will immediately occur to us. While we need not alter our truths, we can surely improve their application to ourselves, to A.A. as a whole, and to our relation with the world around us. We can constantly step up the practice of “these principles in all our affairs.”
~ GRAPEVINE, FEBRUARY 1961 ~
© 1967 by Alcoholics Anonymous ® World Services, Inc
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Page 86 ~
Room for ImprovementWe have come to believe that A.A.’s recovery Steps and Traditions represent the approximate truths which we need for our particular purpose. The more we practice them, the more we like them. So there is little doubt that A.A. principles will continue to be advocated in the form they stand now.If our basis are so firmly fixed as all this, then what is there left to change or to improve?The answer will immediately occur to us. While we need not alter our truths, we can surely improve their application to ourselves, to A.A. as a whole, and to our relation with the world around us. We can constantly step up the practice of “these principles in all our affairs.”
~ GRAPEVINE, FEBRUARY 1961 ~
© 1967 by Alcoholics Anonymous ® World Services, Inc
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A.A. Thought For The Day
The program of Alcoholics Anonymous involves a continuous striving for improvement. There can be no long resting period. We must try to work at it all the time. We must continually keep in mind that it is a program not to be measured in years, because we never fully reach our goals nor are we ever cured. Our alcoholism is only kept in abeyance by daily living of the program. It is a timeless program in every sense. We live it day by day, or more precisely, moment by moment – now. Am I always striving for improvement?
Meditation For The Day
Life is all a preparation for something better to come. God has a plan for your life and it will work out, if you try to do His will. God has things planned for you, far beyond what you can imagine now. But you must prepare yourself so that you will be ready for the better things to come. Now is the time for discipline and prayer. The time of expression will come later. Life can be flooded through and through with joy and gladness. So prepare yourself for those better things to come.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may prepare myself for better things that God has in store for me. I pray that I may trust God for the future.
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Room For Improvement, p. 86
We have come to believe that A.A.’s recovery Steps and Traditions represent the approximate truths which we need for our particular purpose. The more we practice them, the more we like them. So there is little doubt that A.A. principles will continue to be advocated in the form they stand now.If our basics are so firmly fixed as all this, then what is there left to change or to improve?The answer will immediately occur to us. While we need not alter our truths, we can surely improve their applications to ourselves, to A.A. as a whole, and to our relation with the world around us. We can constantly step up the practice of “these principles in all our affairs.”Grapevine, February 1961
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People seldom improve when they have no model but themselves to copy.
—Oliver Goldsmith
If we had to get well by ourselves, we’d be in trouble. We’ve already tried this route. We need to learn a new way to live, not the old way we already know.
That’s why we have sponsors in Twelve Step programs. Sponsors are one of the best things about our recovery. We pick people who are happy and doing well in recovery. Then we copy them. We copy them because sponsors are special people who have what we want. They have sobriety. They have happiness. They have common sense. They have peace and serenity. And they will help us get those things too. We learn a new way to live from them.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me pick good models. Help me copy what works for them.
Action for the Day: If I don’t have a sponsor now, I’ll work today on getting one.
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Change is sometimes necessary
Improvement.
Despite the fact that many of us live turbulent, chaotic lives, we may find in sobriety that we don’t like change. This causes us to seek our security in familiar places, rather than reach out for the unknown that lies ahead.
This may not be real security, however, because familiar places and situations also change. Our resistance to change may simply be the fear of trying something new.
If we find that fear of change is causing us to put up with a situation that’s become unsatisfactory, we need to adjust our attitude toward it.
While we view change as risky, it may be the necessary route for improvement. Let’s start by simply accepting the idea that change is sometimes necessary. After that, we can expect our Higher Power to guide us to the new situations that are right for us.
Today I may find myself fearing change. I’ll remind myself that nothing ever stays the same, and that only change can bring the true good I’m always seeking.
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18
September A deep stab wound must heal from within outward, or fresh tissue would grow over the lip of the wound and prevent the necessary drainage from beneath. Blood poisoning would set in and the poison would circulate through the entire body.Human improvement works the same way. If it is only a surface cure, the poison remains in the heart and mind, affecting our entire life, and unless oral surgery is resorted to, our characters become infected.The AA Program is moral surgery, wherein we remove sick and diseased thoughts and actions from deep within ourselves and thus become entirely healed.Copyright Hazelden Foundation
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9
September There can be no improvement in the world without the improvement of the people who constitute it. There can be no improvement in people unless it is in improved actions motivated by improved thinking and a higher morality code.Aside from the immediate benefits derived by the alcoholics and their families from the AA program, it has done much to raise the character of a large segment of society.Copyright Hazelden Foundation
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29
June
A.A. Thought For The DayThe program of Alcoholics Anonymous involves a continuous striving for improvement. There can be no long resting period. We must try to work at it all the time. We must continually keep in mind that it is a program not to be measured in years, because we never fully reach our goals nor are we ever cured. Our alcoholism is only kept in abeyance by daily living of the program. It is a timeless program in every sense. We live it day by day, or more precisely, moment by moment – now. Am I always striving for improvement?
Meditation For The DayLife is all a preparation for something better to come. God has a plan for your life and it will work out, if you try to do His will. God has things planned for you, far beyond what you can imagine now. But you must prepare yourself so that you will be ready for the better things to come. Now is the time for discipline and prayer. The time of expression will come later. Life can be flooded through and through with joy and gladness. So prepare yourself for those better things to come.Prayer For The DayI pray that I may prepare myself for better things that God has in store for me. I pray that I may trust God for the future.
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24
June
Expressing gratitude
Self ImprovementHow can we express gratitude when we feel it? We can begin by simply using the proper forms of courtesy at all times; this reminds us that we can’t live without other people.
The best way to express gratitude, however, is to “ass on” the good that has come to us. This is more effective when we share ideas and experiences that have helped us on the way to self-improvement.
It’s also a good idea to dismiss thoughts and statements that are forms of prideful boasting. Even telling people how hard we’ve worked for the 12 Step program can detract from our gratitude. And never, under any circumstances, should we put others under obligation to us.
I’ll discover ways to express my gratitude today. I’ll know that my best way of doing it is to pass on good ideas to others.
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