Alcoholics Anonymous | July 10 | DonInLondon | Step 7 "Courage To Change"

Very often we have high expectations which become resentments under construction. And sometimes we have low expectations which are resentments against the world because? It is just plain unfair and it shouldn't be happening to me…

Our step six world often manifests with the emotion of: fear, and manifests in our own mind with pride and ego driving us to distraction. When things are unfair, it probably is unfair to a fair-minded person. At the same time we are not singled out for unfair treatment most often, life simply is unfair and that's where we start.

Our step seven world can save us from ourselves. Shortcomings, as I understand them for myself are about courage to change, faith in doing the next right thing and developing confidence to try and try again… If at first we do not succeed, maybe phone a friend, find a meeting and talk face-to-face with someone we know. Anything which helps us gain perspective on what we are trying to do today and possibly the future as well…

We humans: we don't come with an instruction book and even if we did, who really reads the instructions? We all have instruction books and manuals on how to do things, the greatest learning however is always in the doing of something, the feelings we have about it and the outcomes that happen as we go along.

I need to remind myself on a daily basis, that it is okay to keep on learning and forgetting and making mistakes. Every day is a learning day for normal human beings. At the same time if we are not keeping up with changes which are important to our lifestyle and the way we live, we can find ourselves stuck and frustrated. Anyone trying to break out of addiction to anything has probably got a long history of living with certain attitudes and behaviour which make it difficult to change. Changing anything about ourselves can cause fear to rise up and having courage is something we develop, having faith is something we develop and that brings confidence to feel okay. Before we would shut out the world and isolate. As the saying goes, "it's never too late…