The Steps are suggested only, I don't have to work the Steps if I don't want to. The only requirement for membership is the desire to stop using. What a relief, thought I might have to put some effort into this recovery thing! I can just keep doing the things I've always done, behave the way I've always behaved, think like I've always thought and just not put drugs in my body and life will be hunkie dorrie. Or will it? Hey somebody fibbed, it didn't work for me that way!
Oh wait, for me Misery is optional too. For me there's a direct relationship between working the Steps and misery. The less active I am in working my recovery the more life seems out to get me, the more active in my recovery the more I find serenity and acceptance of whatever life may have to offer. Kind of cool, I get to choose each day whether I want to work and live the Steps in my life and grow or if I want to be miserable. And ya know, sometimes I still choose misery but not nearly as often as before.
These Steps don't seem nearly as ominous as they once did. Well I'll be darned, they do make my life much more liveable!
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Work the Steps or Die MF. (My Friend :) Clean One Day At a Time by The Grace of God through The Power of NA
Courtesy of BigV a while ago, here are some of the "just a suggestion, but ya darn well better" items in our NA program. When Bill W. was writing what became the 12 steps, he used the words "directions" and "instructions", not "suggestions". Others at the time had the wisdom to see that any "must do" orders would keep many of us from ever even considering this particular path to living drug-free and reasonably happy, so it evolved into the 12 steps being "suggested" as a program of recovery. And yet, there are still these pesky "musts"! Which work, than God.
FORTY-EIGHT MUSTS IN NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS as found in the Basic Text
1. "Everything that occurs in the course of N.A. service MUST be motivated by the desire to more successfully carry the message of recovery to the addict who. still suffers. - pg. XVI
2. "We MUST always remember that as individual members, groups, and service committees we are not and should never be in competition with each other." pg. XVI
3. "We MUST face our problems and our feelings." - pg. 15
4. "We are people with the disease of addiction who MUST abstain from all drugs in order to recover." - pg. 18
5. "A second admission MUST be made before our foundation is complete." pg. 21 Explanation: It is not enough to admit that we are powerless over drugs, we MUST also admit that our lives had become unmanageable.
6. "We MUST be done with the past and not cling to it." - pg. 28'
7. "Assets MUST also be considered, if we are to get an accurate and complete picture of ourselves." - pg. 28
8. "Although He already knows, the admission MUST come from our own lips to be truly effective. Step five is not simply a reading of step four." - pg. 31
9. & 10. "We MUST carefully choose the person who is to hear our fifth step.' We MUST make sure that they know what we are doing and why we are doing it." - pg. 31
11. "We MUST be exact." - pg. 32
12. " We MUST realize that we are not perfect." - pg. 3 5
13. "Our experience tells us that we MUST become willing this step will have any effect." - pg. 36 (step eight)
14. "We MUST separate what was done to us from what we did to others." - pg. 37
15. "As with each step we MUST, be thorough." - pg. 38
16. "We MUST remember the pain that they have known." - pg. 40
17. " It is said that for meditation to be of value, the results MUST show in our daily lives." - pg. 46
18. "We MUST give freely and gratefully that which has been freely and gratefully given to us." - pg. 47
19. "Our disease involved much more than just using drugs, so our recovery MUST involve much more than simple abstinence." - pg. 53
20. "We MUST give up this old concept and face the fact that reality and life go on, whether we choose to accept them or not." - pg. 53
21. & 22. "When we are prepared, we MUST try out our newly found way of life. We learn -the program won't work when we try to adapt it to our life. We MUST learn to adapt our life to the program." - pg. 55
23. "Unity is a MUST in Narcotics Anonymous." - pg. 60
24. "We MUST live and work together as a group to ensure that in a storm our ship does not sink and our members do not perish." - pg. 60
25. "We MUST be constantly on guard that our decisions are truly an expression of God's will." - pg. 61
26. "An atmosphere of recovery in our groups is one of the most valued assets, and we MUST guard it carefully, lest we lose it to politics and personalities." - pg. 61
27. "We MUST remember that officers have been Placed in trust that we are trusted servants, and that at no time do any of us govern." - pg. 61
28. "Our Sixth Tradition tells us some of the things we MUST do to preserve and protect our primary purpose." - pg. 66
29. "We MUST first understand what N.A. is. Narcotics Anonymous is addicts who have the desire to stop using, and have joined together to do so." - pg. 70
30. "In order to achieve our spiritual aim, Narcotics Anonymous MUST be known and respected." - pg. 71
31. "To improve ourselves takes effort and since there is no way in the world to graft a new idea on a closed mind, an opening MUST be made somehow." - pg. 75
32. "We MUST relearn many things that we have forgotten and develop a new approach to life if we are to survive." - pg. 77
33. "We realize we MUST do something." - pg. 78 (read the prior sentences)
34. "When we feel the old urges come over us, we think there MUST be something wrong with us, and that other people in Narcotics Anonymous couldn't possibly understand." - pg. 79
35. "We come here powerless and the power that we seek comes to us through other people in Narcotics Anonymous, but we MUST reach out for it." - pg. 79
36. "Recovery found in Narcotics Anonymous MUST come from within, and no one stays clean for anyone but themselves." - pg. 80
37. "if we have relapsed it is important to keep in mind that we MUST get back to meetings as soon as possible." - pg. 80
38. "We MUST totally surrender ourselves to the program." - pg. 81
39. "We MUST use what we learn or we will lose it in a relapse." - pg. 81
40. "We MUST, use what we learn or we will lose it, no matter how long we have been clean." - pg. 82
41. "Eventually we are shown that we MUST get honest or we will use again." - pg. 82
42. "We MUST smash the illusion that we can do it alone." - pg. 82
43. "Staying clean MUST always come first." - pg. 82
44. "Some things we MUST accept, others we can change." - pg. 92
45. "We MUST be willing to do whatever is necessary to recover." - pg. 93
46. "We never know when the time will come when we MUST put forth all the effort and strength we have just to stay clean." - pg. 93
47. "No matter how painful life's tragedies can be for us, one thing is clear we MUST not use no matter what!" - pg. 98
48. "In order to receive we MUST be willing to give." - pg. 102
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From dying and surviving to living and thriving. LeeU
Thanks Lee ,man one of my always problems ,character defects,shortcomings,fallen nature and knuckleheadedness! has always been 'don't like must's!!!One area i am usually aware of when I relate with others etc..when you tell me I must ,that means I may "must not'!!! much better today than days past,but oh yeah....!!!
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Our purpose is to remain clean,just for today,and to carry the message of recovery.
