"In recovery there are no losers, just slow winners."
 

From Wisdom of the Rooms

I remember being in early recovery and feeling so bad that I just knew it wasn't working. I'd tell my sponsor about it, and I can still hear him saying, "Michael, you're exactly where you should be, and that's exactly what you should be feeling right now." At first I thought he was just handing me a line, but after a while I believed him and learned to trust in the slow progress I was making in recovery.

Years later I'd hear other newcomers complain about how bad they felt and about how terrible of a day they were having. I can still hear the old timers ask them if they had a drink that day. "No," they'd respond. "Then no matter bad you think you're doing, when you lay your head on your pillow tonight you're a winner." It was comforting to hear that back then, and it still is today.

Now that I've been in recovery a while I understand the wisdom in this week's quote. It doesn't matter what you're going through in recovery or how you feel, the fact that you are in recovery, that you have a program, and that you're developing or improving your conscious contact with a power greater than yourself means that you've already won. You may feel like a loser temporarily, but most of the time and in the long run you'll live a life filled with the joys and miracles of recovery.

Over time you, too, will come to see that in recovery there are no losers, just slow winners.

Love this. Thanks for posting.

Good post MIR.. :)


I always refer to what my sponsor said and still does, now I do.. LOL

On those stinkin thinkin day..

I may not know what I am doing, but I do know one thing , I am not drinking..The rest will come as long as I remain openminded, teachable , and willing to work.. :)

Great post :) x

Thank you for this post, just what I needed to read today.

Great post. Thankyou x

One of the old timers I know says, "God promises to change me so slow that I will hardly notice it." I know from personal experience that this is true. Not only in early sobriety but in later sobriety as well. The only way I know I am progressing at all is to look backwards and see that I am not the same person I was.

Early sobriety is difficult but each day sober is a success that needs to be celebrated and can be counted as a good day. I will rejoy that today I am a winner.