Accountability

Being accountable to someone is so important to my sobriety. Knowing that I must check in on this Forum each morning is very helpful for me.

I agree I find it very heartwarming reading posts here I feel part of sonething and knowing we r here for each other and not alone is a blessing and I’m very grateful for it.. thankyou to everyone 🤗

Yes, I feel the exact same! :):)

Amen

Hello All! Thank you Grateful for the 5th step last night. It wasn't as hard as I kept thinking it would be and is very freeing. I slept well last night! The first time in awhile.
I encourage anyone who has not taken the steps to do yourself a favor and do them. You are worth it. In trying to overcome my low esteem (just as insiduous as an inflated awlf esteem) I have found a tendency to treat strangers better than I treat myself. Why is that? I believe part of it is that I don't deserve to be treated well. That is hogwash! We are ALL children of God - Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, non-religious, everyone- where else do you think everyone outside of our category above came from?
All this by saying we deserve to be restored to our God-given identity. Please don't let the God talk rub you the wrong way- it is a God of your understanding.
I want to thank you all on this board for your input and help. We will walk together on the broad highway! We will know a new freedom...one day at a time.

Really glad to be a part of your recovery JibJab! We all help each other! Today I can ask for help without feeling "less than." Today I can give help without feeling "more than." Did you do steps 6 and 7?

I sat for an hour after our talk. I have not fully done steps 6 & 7. I feel like I should spend more time. However, it could be that I know steps 8 and 9 follow. I am at the ballpark again today. Looks like 2 games today. I need to look at them (steps 6 & 7) tonight. I thanked my HP and read the BB more than did the 6 & 7. I know the book "Drop the Rock" was helpful in the past with my 6 & 7 steps. I am asking my HP now in this moment if indecision.

Hello All! I hope everyone is doing well today and has a semblance of serenity today. I took the 6th and 7th last night. I felt the Big Book was pretty straightforward with the steps. I am starting the eighth today.

Semblance of serenity is certainly OK with me. Life doesn't have to be perfect for me to know joy. And I don't have to always be in a perfect state of bliss to be serene. Often serenity is just knowing I am facing life on life's terms fearlessly on a Monday morning.

JibJab, and everyone else , 8th step says we made a list of those we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all." Simple step...just list anybody you think you harmed. This step does not mean you will actually approach the person. Step 9 will guide you on that. Since I am your Sponsor now JibJab, I can help you with figuring out who you will actually approach. You should have the list finished by Thursday. Any questions?

Got it! In the interest of the 4 attributes- namely honesty- I jumped the gun and contacted the one I thought was the hardest on my list. I have had it on my mind and tried to reason not to do it. Yet, I knew I needed to do it. It was a former employer. I did it and talked with the individual and admitted my wrongs. He was receptive and wished me well.
I will hold off on any others until Thursday.

Way to go JibJab. You are en route to a new freedom!

Thank you. I couldn't have done it without ALL of you. I must say that the trick for me on the 8th step is to not slip into morbid reflection. When you start to put to paper the people you have harmed my tendency is to hear the trumpets wailing loudly for the pity party. I keep in my mind that I need to have my side of the street clean and this is part of the process. Cleaning up the wreckage of our past.
Do you realize how fortunate we are? I have often thought what if I was born pre-AA? I would be locked up in a mental asylum. Or dead. We have been given this program of recovery. Simple yet hard (there is another paradox!). I want to express my gratitude to my sponsor-Grateful- and to everybody on this board whether you have commented or not. I could not get through today without you. God bless every one of you.

Great day to be sober!

Ready to chat today! Simple program but ain't necessarily easy. I have a tendency to live by cliches so I try not to use them as a way of living but some cliches are true. "Anything worth having is going to take some effort" and my sobriety is worth having, this keystone to the arch of freedom is well worth any inconvenience. I am ready for the 9th!

Hello everybody! Completed eighth and starting on ninth. Thanks for being here, I get much strength from you all.

Scratching people off the list! Freeing!!!

Nice JibJab that you are doing the ninth step (and all the prior steps) without delaying. NOW, AND EVERYONE WHO READS THIS, please read the paragraph which begins at the bottom of p. 83 of the Big Book and ends about a third of the way down on p. 84 of the Big Book...where it says, "If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through, etc...." Then, oh boy, the Big Book lists what I love probably as one of the best things about sobriety, the 12 PROMISES!!!!!! Read the next paragraph too..."...that they will always materialize if we work for them."

Yes! Everyone I will echo what Grateful and the Big Book say- they will always materialize. I experienced this and for me that was good and bad. I sat on my laurels! I got comfortable...the stinking thinking (to the point of suicidal ideation) returned and relapsed on benzos for 10 years. Yet my loving God is a God of second, third, fourth chances and will redeem the mess I have made if it means being useful to others. Please do these steps with me so we may be rocketed into the 4th dimension together ❤️!

I love relating to everybody here I guess that shows a little bit of accountability I just not like feeling alone

Welcome Kat and JLR! I am glad to see you posting. Thanks for being here because you are helping me stay sober.
Practicing the 11th step has been relatively easy for me since I had started a quiet time in the mornings about 17 years ago. I imagine a weak spot on my part was that my prayers were (are) very self directed without necessarily involving others. This I have slowly come to realize and ask God to put my thoughts and prayers on a higher plane so as to be service to others. I try to repeat throughout the day "Your will be done". This is a good mantra to redirect my thinking to my Loving Higher Power.
Another glorious day to put these principles into action. After all I am living on borrowed time!