Stick With The Winners!
This is the key message of a reading from ‘Just for today’. It is a message I have heard often and on the surface its meaning is clear. Mix with the people who are addicts who are clean and sober and have been that way for some considerable time.
If we think about it, though, it is more than that. Who wants to mix with someone who, though a long time clean and sober, is miserable and angry? So it is not just about length of sobriety. I remember my sponsor saying to me in my early days, ‘Talk to Gina. She is only a year sober but she has a good quality addition recovery’. I wondered what this meant but now a number more years down the line, I think I know.
Winners – Those Enjoying Recovery
Winners are the people who are enjoying their addiction recovery. They are comfortable staying clean and sober, can still go out and have fun and are not clinging on to their sobriety by their fingernails. They are working their programme, living an honest life and taking a daily inventory so that they do not build up resentments and are comfortable in their own skin. They are sharing their recovery with newcomers and offering support, keeping their sobriety by giving it away. They have a sense of humour, laughing at themselves and with others. They put principles before personalities and can be trusted not to betray their fellow addicts’ anonymity by gossiping.
Still Face Troubles and Difficulties
However, that is not to say that winners do not face troubles and difficulties the same as anyone else. They do not pretend that all is wonderful when it isn’t. They share honestly and truthfully about their lives and show us how it is possible to live through challenges , to face them and beat them. They show us how we are never sent more to cope with than we can manage. They show us how it is possible to live in the solution and not the problem.
Easy to See Who the Winners are..
If you attend a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous, it should be fairly easy to decide who the winners are. Seek these people out at the end of the meeting, say hello and ask them for their telephone number. A winner will always be happy to support you. As you get to know your winners better, you can identify more closely what it is about their recovery that you wish to have and then you can work on your own recovery to emulate theirs. Try and make sure your sponsor is a winner so he or she can give you respected advice. As time goes on, you will find that you have taken this advice on board and that you have absorbed some of these winner’s traits. Before you know it, you will be considered a winner too!
The Haynes Clinic is a drug, gambling and alcohol rehab clinic offering detox and treatment for those suffering from addiction to alcohol, gambling, drugs and prescription medication.
Call 01462 851414 for confidential help and advice.
