Duty
 

Twenty-four years in the Navy taught me a thing or two about duty. I had to do a multitude of things I didn't really want to do. Whether I wanted to do them or agreed with the mission did not matter. They had to be done.

I began looking at my sobriety in a similar light earlier today. I don't have to like it, I just have to do it. It's my duty. I have been given fantastic gifts in this life - health, wealth, family - it's immoral and selfish for me to sacrifice those for alcohol. I have a stack of personal citations from the Department of Defense saying I exemplify devotion to duty. Time to live up to my billing.

Members at a group I formerly attended frequently used the expression, "fake it 'til you make it". Devotion to duty seems like a variation on that theme. For now, I'm going with it. :)

Well said non. Well said.

I will consider looking at mine the same way. Thanks for that.

Being Responsible. Responsibility.:c014:

Great post. I really needed to read this. I need to start taking this attitude towards my work as well as my sobriety. Thanks for inspiring me today.

One thing, I suspect, that made your "duty" easier was your memory of having made an oath upon enlistment.
That oath was time limited for while you were in the service.

Paul, you still have, like every other adult person, the capacity to make an oath called the Big Plan, which, by including the term "never", means you can only do it once.

For me, the Big Plan makes the "duty" of R'ing my AV just about the easiest T in the world. A "duty" of NOT doing something. For me, the R has become a reflex more than a recognition. Addictive Voice Recognition Technique has morphed into Addictive Voice Reflex, all thanks to, first, deciding drinking was despicably wrong for me, ever; and, second, thus making the Big Plan.

Well, I hear your recent lack of disdain at your own drinking and its consequences, so, WHEN and IF you come to decide drinking ever again will ALWAYS be morally reprehensible for YOU, the Big Plan and AVRT is there to set you free from both addiction and recovery.

GT

The morality of drinking, or, in my case, the immorality, was what finally sealed the deal airtight for me.

I voluntarily made some connections in my mind just to add the padlocks to the door on ever drinking again. I have a friend whose husband and baby daughter were killed in a split second by a drunk driver. While I never had a DUI charge, I certainly could have been arrested and convicted more than once for getting behind the wheel after a snootful.

I use this historical fact to conflate drinking again ever with vehicular homicide while impaired. If I were to drink, I could kill some mother's child and destroy her Mama's life in the process. I could be responsible for a tragedy like the one that will follow my friend for her remaining days on this earth. Drinking is now a moral question for me. Don't worry, I have an answer, and it looks a lot like a Big Plan - I will never drink again and I will never change my mind.

Paul, you are an honorable and dutiful man, and you have proof of it under the most difficult conditions imaginable. This sobriety thing is a thing you can do. You can choose to no longer be dishonored by your actions. Ever again. You can do this thing, Soldier.

Love it, Paul - an excellent way to look at it. :) Proud of you.

I like it Paul.

Joyce Meyer said: “Character is doing what you don't want to do but know you should do.”

Good orderly direction and a will to action have equated success throughout human history. That winning formula also puts an end to addiction.

I like the way your mind is working today!!! I hope you are doing great! Keep up the good work!!
On a side note, there's a quote I tell myself when I want to cut corners at work and I applied it to some stinking thinking I was having today. I am going to be all alone his weekend with no one to see me slip. I keep telling myself this, "integrity is what you do when no one else is watching"
It helps me a lot. Sort of like duty I guess.

YES! OMGi'msohappytoreadthis!

Thank you, Non. You're making sense again. xo

I find myself thinking about this the last 2 days....
My medical students are taught ethics..lying in any form is a serious breach of professionalism...
It's my responsibility to myself and my loved ones to stay sober...and do what needs to be done to stay that way..
Even after extended time...i can waffle..
Waffles are best with syrup and bacon...not thoughts about wine.:thanks

Last Monday - Monday I drank 4 out of 8 days. Is it any wonder I was in a fog on Tuesday? Couldn't see it then, but I see it now.

Thinking a bit more about oaths...
My wife and I took oaths to love each other for better or worse...
Two points on this:

1. Love is an action verb in that oath. It requires DOING something.

2. Implicit in that oath is the understanding that we will strive to bring the BETTER to the marriage. It is not just grossly unfair to consistently bring my WORSE and expect her to deal with it because she took an oath, it is also a violation of my oath.

glad to see you are back posting, Non, instead of your AV/Beast/IT.

And here I thought character is doing what you don't want to do and not posting about it on facebook.

Grins,
Genie

Yay Non..... So glad your back :You_Rock_ You are a Badass !!!!!!!! And with that said let me know when it is safe for me to whine to you about my sobriety again....:rotfxko Jess

You have inspired the title of my first book:

Bad Ass and Whine

:)

Lol... checking in on you. How are you doing?????

Fine, thank you for asking. Just not feeling sociable today.

Glad to hear it....

jkb, love your "good luck" sign, :lmao: