Topic for the week: “Daily Resolutions”
DAILY RESOLUTIONS
December 31
The idea of “twenty-four-hour living” applies primarily to the emotional life of the individual. Emotionally speaking, we must not live in yesterday, nor in tomorrow.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 284
A New Year: 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes — a time to consider directions, goals, and actions. I must make some plans to live a normal life, but also I must live emotionally within a twenty-four-hour frame, for if I do, I don’t have to make New Year’s resolutions! I can make every day a New Year’s day! I can decide, “Today I will do this . . . Today I will do that.” Each day I can measure my life by trying to do a little better, by deciding to follow God’s will and by making an effort to put the principles of our A.A. program into action.
From the book Daily Reflections.
Copyright © 1990 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. All rights reserved.
As we approach the New Year, I am always tempted to get carried away and make crazy resolutions to change my entire life overnight. I will get almost obsessive the last week of the year about all the ways this coming year is going to be better than the last. But what usually happens? I commit to such large sweeping changes that I can never keep up with it, and give up within a couple months, couple weeks, honestly, even sometimes after just a couple days or couple hours.
So this year, I’m going to follow the directions of today’s Daily Reflection and just aim to during these 24 hours ahead of me to be the best sober Emily I can be by applying the Steps, Traditions, and Concepts of this program to my daily life. I will each day start by being willing to be a beginner and to have a new experience. I will each day put down my will and pick up my Higher Power’s will for me. I will strive to Keep It Simple, and take the prescription Dr. Bob often wrote on his prescription pad, “Trust God, Clean House, Help Others.” I am going to trust that we really do have a program for living that works, even in rough going, and work that program to the best of my ability each day. Because I have found over the last 5+ years that I’ve been working an actual active AA program, it really does 100% work if I work it.
Over this last year, I focused on just one word as my…idk…”guiding light” for my spiritual path…”surrender”. The main thing was to do it every morning, just a simple “God, you’re in charge, not me, guide me from here” upon awakening.
In the past year, I have been brought to the end of myself in so many areas and really been able to let go of control, worry, fear, attachment, dependency, even in my closest relationships and even in my most challenging areas. Don’t get me wrong, it was painful, it was hard work, and I have to continue the work everyday. But the more 24 hours in a row I practice these principles, the better I feel inside and the more effective and useful I can be to my Creator.
What have Daily Resolutions done to enhance your recovery and overall life?
Thank you for the honor of leading this meeting. The floor is now open for sharing.