Disagreeable or unexpected problems are not the only ones that call for self-control. We must be quite as careful when we begin to achieve some measure of importance and material success. For no people have ever loved personal triumphs more than we have loved them; we drank of success as of a wine which could never fail to make us feel elated. Blinded by prideful self-confidence, we were apt to play the big shot.
Now that we're in A.A. and sober, winning back the esteem of our friends and business associates, we find that we still need to exercise special vigilance. As an insurance against the dangers of big-shot-ism, we can often check ourselves by remembering that we are today sober only by the grace of God and that any success we may be having is far more His success than ours.
"remembering that we are today sober only by the grace of God and that any success we may be having is far more His success than ours."
I was saying this to my wife yesterday. I was 3.5 years sober when we met, so she has no idea (besides the stories that I've told) "what it was like". My statement was to the effect that my life, if still an active one, wouldn't look anything like this if not for sobriety, and only by the grace of my Higher Power do have the all the gifts in my life today.
I can already see parts of this bigshotism coming out in me. The combo of alcoholism, desire to fix others, and being a therapist is a draw towards that. My uncle was also all these things (alcoholic, therapist, relationship dependent, opinionated) and once he got into AA, he did become an annoying know it all, though that was much better than the angry drunk he was before. So far, I have followed his life pattern almost to a tee. Gotta watch out for this one.
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Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
