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More Old Ideas

It says in How it Works that "some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely." . The word absolutely doesn't allow much wiggle room. If it means that I have totally and completely let go to all of my old ideas, then to be honest I haven't made much progress in this department.

The reason I can tell I still have old ideas is that I still have character defects. If the character defect is a weed, then at the end of the root of each character defect is the seed of an old idea that I haven't yet let go of. Here's just a few of the ideas I'm still obviously carrying around:

--It is my wife's responsibility to make me happy.
--I've been put on this earth to achieve something.
--The chief aim of life is to be comfortable.
--If I act considerately towards you, you should act considerately towards me.
--I will someday receive extra points for trying to do everything perfectly

Maybe one of the most powerful old ideas I still carry is that I am totally responsible for every aspect of my life and if a problem arises I must solve it myself without any help. Without God gracing me with a moment of clarity, this idea might very well have killed me!

As I look at this list now it seems almost silly to still hold on to most of these. Why don't I just drop them? I guess I will let go when I am entirely ready to let go.

Even though I obviously haven't let go of all of my old ideas, I must have let go of enough of them for my Higher Power to come in and work in my life. Because my result hasn't been "nil" at all, it's been a far better life than I could possibly imagine eleven years ago. Thanks totally to the program and fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.