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One Day at a Time in Al-Anon:

What’s the Big Idea in Al-Anon? What’s behind these assurances that I do have the power to improve the shape and texture of my life? It is this: Look to yourself. What am I doing that creates difficulties for me, or aggravates the ones I have? Could it be that I’m trying to fix everything by finding fault with somebody else? In Al-Anon I am encouraged to examine my impulses, motives, actions and words. This helps me to correct the causes of my own unease and not blame it on others.

Today’s Reminder:

At first, the idea that we might be at fault isn’t easy to accept. We find it hard to believe that our behavior isn’t all it should be.

Once I overcome the habit of justifying everything I do, and make use of such tools as courtesy, tenderness and a warm interest in others, miracles will happen. This I know, because I have seen them happen to others who tried the Al-Anon way.

“If you cannot make yourself what you would like to be, how can you expect to have another person exactly to your wishes? We want to see others perfect, yet our own faults go unattended.”
— Thomas A’Kempis, paraphrased

From the book “One Day at a Time in Al-Anon”. © Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc. 1973