Anonymity and self-will
“The drive for personal gain… which brought so much pain in the past falls by the wayside if we adhere to the principle of anonymity.”
– Basic Text, p. 76
The word anonymity itself means namelessness, but there’s a larger principle at work in the anonymity of the NA program: the principle of selflessness. When we admit our powerlessness to manage our own lives, we take our first step away from self-will and our first step toward selflessness. The less we try to run our lives on self-will, the more we find the power and direction once so sorely lacking in our lives.
But the principle of selflessness does a lot more than just make us feel better — it helps us live better. Our ideas of how the world should be run begin to lose their importance, and we stop trying to impose our will on everyone and everything around us. And when we abandon our “know-it- all” pretensions and start recognizing the value of other people’s experience, we start treating them with respect. The interests of others become as important to us as our own; we start to think about what’s best for the group, rather than just what’s best for us. We start living a life that’s bigger than we are, that’s more than just us, our name, ourself — we start living the principle of anonymity.
Just for Today:
God, please free me from self-will. Help me understand the principle of anonymity; help me to live selflessly.