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Category: 12-Step Attitude
You Don't Have to Slip
5 Attitude changing tips from an AA oldtimer - Part 2
Copyright © The AA Grapevine, Inc. (September,1955).
Reprinted from INTERGROUPER Newsletter
Continued from Issue 1154
ATTITUDE IV: Sobriety Must Be Earned.
Sobriety cannot be bought with money. Many of us tried that to no avail. But sobriety has its price and if we try to buy it too cheaply it may elude us. Hence, if I attend two meetings a week and do not get sober I will step up my program to four or five meetings and also increase my other AA activities: work in the kitchen, chauffeur others to meetings, go to lunch with other members, help at intergroup, make hospital calls, read AA literature a few minutes each day, use the telephone more (particularly if I am debating about a drink) and so on.
This intensification of activity has particular applicability to members who have been around some time but with limited success. They may be trying to buy sobriety too cheaply. It usually can't be done. Sure, Joe stays dry without going to many meetings.
Some few stay dry on their own... but what has that to do with me?
If a member finds he is not "getting the program" he should consider whether he ought to increase the volume of his AA activity. In other words, give - not money - but of himself, more generously. Naturally, this fuller scope of activity may mean some sacrifice. Perhaps that too is necessary.
ATTITUDE V: Try To Put Greater Emphasis On Personal Contact With That Higher Power.
Some new members may not be ready for those Steps which relate to the Higher Power. For them the cultivation of Attitude V may have to be delayed; but they can probably read this short section without doing violence to their principles.
Some of us who enjoy sobriety ask that Higher Power each morning for the grace to get through another day. "No matter what happens, don't let me take that first drink today - no matter what happens!"
At night we give thanks for the day just gone and look forward to the morrow, humbly asking him "for twenty-four more hours of sincerity, sobriety, and serenity"; asking his help tomorrow to "improve the quality as well as to increase the quantity" of our sobriety.
We don't feel compelled to limit our request to the morning and evening. When we enter that restaurant with the boss and two VPs, when we walk off the eighteenth green and
head for the clubhouse, when we feel alone in that distant city - what is wrong with repeating, "No matter what happens, don't let me take that first drink!" That is a conscious contact with God! It is as simple as that. And it won't do the slipping agnostic or atheist much damage. Who knows, it may get him sober. Nothing else has, so what has he got to lose?
These five attitudes by no means tell the whole story. Some members may have to think through other approaches for themselves but these five are basic to a wide range of cases. They emphasize to us that sobriety must be our first concern and to obtain it we should be willing to suffer any pain or embarrassment. We try to earn our sobriety by giving of ourselves generously rather than stingily and we maintain close contact with that Higher Power through supplication and thanksgiving. You don't have to slip - and if you cultivate these five suggested attitudes, you probably won't.
It's worth a try, anyway.
Anonymous, Scarsdale, New York
