Got a note from a good friend reminding me of one of the old sayings in this program. Sadly it’s drifted into silence over time. I’m going to guess it’s offensive to some. The saying is, utilize don’t analyze.
Why was that important to us? For one thing I can remember the words, analysis leads to paralysis. Really? I would have to say yes. It did for me.
I know I would get caught up in myself with some “problem” and the next thing I would find myself stuck in my head, as the problem became more and magnified. By the time I became willing to share it with my sponsor my program would be in neutral.
I would go to my sponsor and tell him and he would get this funny “Popeye” smile and shake his head. That’s when he would say to me, “Why are you whining?” I wouldn’t know and in fact be unaware. Then he would ask me why I had come to the program. I would reply, “to get sober”. “Are you?” I’d say yes. Then he would say, “Then why are you whining. You got what you came for.”
Then, that’s when that saying would be applied. Utilize, don’t analyze. In other words put the program into action and stop that useless belly aching. The answer to what was wrong was in the Steps. All I had to do was work them.
When I would do what I was told I became more and more aware of the value of that Tenth Step. Old timers had told me early on that I could begin to use that Step. I was told that I came in with a full ashtray and the Tenth would help me to keep it from spilling over. Though I knew what they said, I really didn’t understand that Step until I had been around for a long time.
At least today I have a better understanding. I know, when I get stuck and find myself “paralyzed” I can more quickly get myself back on track. I have learned to spot where I’m wrong. That “dry drunk syndrome” is erased much faster.
How often I have heard this at meetings, where someone brings up one of these problems and the group tends to get caught up in “therapy”. Opinions. When the answer is much simpler. Work the program. It’s in the Steps. That’s why we have sponsors. If they know about us, they will know how to deal with us. They can say things, which get right to the point. Or at least they should. That’s how my sponsor, those old timers, and my friends would deal with me. They could be direct. Blunt I think is the word. I needed to get what I got and it worked. For me.
The value of utilize, don’t analyze, is that it was a continual reminder that this program is never done. It’s a day at a time. I’m not cured of my alcoholism. I have a daily reprieve from my drinking alcohol. That old drunk is still alive somewhere deep down within. I need the spiritual solution in the Steps to maintain my sobriety. I don’t need to get stuck and immobile, thinking, thinking, thinking. Intellectualizing and using a microscope on whatever it is that is stuck in my head.
Talking to another alcoholic and using the Steps is the solution. If I’m commited to stay sober. And I am.