A couple of calls yesterday brought up an old timer’s statement from years ago. I’ve thought about it often, because it’s true. What did he say? He said, “Attitudes are everything. They’re more important than facts. In fact they change the facts.”
How true is that? It was made clear to me by an illustration, which is true. That old timer said that if I take two days, both of them beautiful, perfect, and on the first day I say just that. “What a perfect day.” And the next day, which is the same as the first, I wake up and say to myself “What a stinking day” Both days are the same. What’s changed? My attitude, of course.
I can have a positive attitude or a negative attitude. If I wish to practice these principles in all of my affairs, it’s a positive attitude, which will carry me through this practice. And my attitude is subject to how I feel. Feelings, which often lie to me, as do my emotions.
When I find myself in a negative place, it’s time for me to start my day all over again. To step back and try to make a conscious contact with my Higher Power. To renew myself and get on with the day, with the help of what I’ve learned in this program. The spiritual solution.
What that old timer was pointing to, when he said attitudes are everything, was that, when I have a bad attitude, a negative one, it can lead to bad decisions, bad choices. It can take my day down, unless I stop and start my day over. Some of those negative choices can threaten my sobriety and I don’t want to go there.
Just thinking about it convinces me that I want to have a positive attitude. Thinking positively about my life and my sobriety. To put on “a new pair of glasses”, a new attitude, which will allow me to see things in a different light. To see life as positive and not negative. To use what I’ve learned in here. The first two Promises for instance. A new happiness and a new freedom. To stop fighting everyone and everything, including alcohol. The restoration to sanity. The spiritual awakening, which comes as a result of applying these Steps to my life. And to have an attitude of gratitude for all this Program has given to me.
I can accomplish much of this by attending meetings and listening to alcoholics just like myself, sharing their experience, strength, a hope with me and others in the room. I am committed to do this, because I want to stay sober and live a sober life.