![]() We often have to make a few mistakes before we can learn anything. ![]() Properly viewed, all mistakes are for learning purposes. past, present, or future-the right to set the level of our self-esteem. But we’re at fault if we continue to let ourselves be victimized by such experience. Some of us may feel we’re victims of past conditioning… a parent, for example, who berated us when the slightest thing went wrong. As one person observed, “I can handle a general catastrophe, but running my nylons can ruin my day.” We take each simple mistake as further proof of our inadequacy. One sign of an alcoholic’s immaturity is revealed in responses to personal mistakes. This had not been done with sheer will power it came instead as the result of developing the willingness to accept these new facts of living. Our whole treasured philosophy of self-sufficiency had to be cast aside. The moment we were able to accept these facts fully, our release from the alcohol compulsion had begun.įor most of us, this pair of acceptances had required a lot of exertion to achieve. group) could do this hitherto impossible job. We admitted we couldn’t lick alcohol with our own remaining resources, and so we accepted the further fact that dependence upon a Higher Power (if only our A.A. ![]() I pray that I may make them feel that I really care. I pray that I may warmly welcome all who come to me for help. They may not want to communicate with me unless they are sure of a warm welcome. I must not fail God by repulsing that person. God may have put the impulse in some despairing one’s mind to come to me. I must send no one away without a word of cheer, a feeling that I really care about them. I should welcome them, bestow little courtesies and understandings on them, and help them if they ask for help. I should try to see something to love in them. I should strive for a friendliness and helpfulness that will affect all who come near to me. *******************************************Īs I look back over my drinking career, have I learned that you take out of life what you put into it? When I put drinking into my life, did I take out a lot of bad things? Hospitals with the D.T.’s? Jails for drunken driving? Loss of job? Loss of home and family? When I put drinking into my life, was almost everything I took out bad? A close, honest relationship with a Higher Power is the only solid foundation I’ve found for honesty with self and with others. I need to remember each day that deceiving myself about myself is setting myself up for failure or disappointment in life and in Alcoholics Anonymous. My Higher Power can remove this character defect, but first I have to help myself become willing to receive that help by not practicing deception. Deceiving others is a character defect–even if it is just stretching the truth a bit or cleaning up my motives so others would think well of me. When I was drinking, I deceived myself about reality, rewriting it to what I wanted it to be. When we are honest with another person, it confirms that we have been honest with ourselves and with God. The deception of others is nearly always rooted in the deception of ourselves.
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