Progress, Not Perfection.
--Alcoholics Anonymous slogan
We don't expect our lives to be perfect. We don't expect ourselves to be perfect. We just want to stop the insanity of addiction and begin to live lives that make sense.
We don't expect to be perfect, but most of us do want to be good. We can actually live up to that goal now that we are sober. It takes a lot of work, and always seeing new ways to improve. Working the Steps helps us learn a great deal about how we can be better people. Having the love and support of our recovery friends and the guidance of our sponsor gives us the strength and help we need.
In fact, the work of being a good person brings many rewards. We invite spiritual teachers into our lives, we make true friends, we gain respect for ourselves, and we find that others respect us too.
Prayer for the Day
Higher Power, help me see today how I can pitch in to make things better in some way at work, at home, or for someone who needs a bit of kindness.
Today's Action
What's one small thing I am willing to do in the next twenty-four hours to bring a bit of goodness to a situation? Call a friend who needs support? Bring flowers to work to brighten the day? Take time to really visit with a child? I will make a decision to do one special thing and do it!
Excellent. One thing I will do is try to be more positive. That helps in everyway. Thanks for the thought Janet
I'm a day late with this one but I wanted to post on it.
Progress, not perfection. What a concept! One of the coolest things I've found in AA is not only do we discover what our defects are, we have friends that will point out to us when we are acting on them. Once we work the 4th and 5th steps and discover what our defects are we start working to improve ourselves with the 6th and 7th steps. The reason for this is so we don't find the need to hide from our feelings or actions with drugs or alcohol. This is a lifetime process. No one in AA will ever be perfect and we are not expected to be perfect. . But we are expected to work on being better. Just saying "yeah I was wrong but I'm working on it" doesn't quite cut it. We have sponsors to guide us and close friends to help us. It's a wonderful feeling to know people care about each other this way. It is for me, anyway. It's so easy to slip back into old behavior. I had the isms for a long time. This sober life is a pretty new way to live for me. But I sure like it better than the old way.
Progress, not perfection. What a concept! One of the coolest things I've found in AA is not only do we discover what our defects are, we have friends that will point out to us when we are acting on them. Once we work the 4th and 5th steps and discover what our defects are we start working to improve ourselves with the 6th and 7th steps. The reason for this is so we don't find the need to hide from our feelings or actions with drugs or alcohol. This is a lifetime process. No one in AA will ever be perfect and we are not expected to be perfect. . But we are expected to work on being better. Just saying "yeah I was wrong but I'm working on it" doesn't quite cut it. We have sponsors to guide us and close friends to help us. It's a wonderful feeling to know people care about each other this way. It is for me, anyway. It's so easy to slip back into old behavior. I had the isms for a long time. This sober life is a pretty new way to live for me. But I sure like it better than the old way.
