Recovery Meditations: March 23rd

Progress, Not Perfection

"The maxim "Nothing but perfection"
may be spelled "Paralysis."

Winston Churchill


I can't count the number of times I've heard the expression, "progress not perfection" from my sponsor and used it with my sponsees. We take little steps - one day at a time - which gradually leads to greater steps. Small successes eventually will lead to bigger successes. Often though, we want it all and we want it NOW!

Recovery is a process - not an end result. It requires a kind of a balancing act - if we try to juggle more balls than what we're capable of comfortably balancing - we will crash and this can lead to relapse. So rather than juggling five balls and crashing - it's better to juggle three really well and gradually work in a 4th or a fifth.

One Day at a Time . . .
I will focus on making progress rather than trying to be perfect.

~ Rob R.

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 "Recovery is a process-not an end result."  This statement is very true, and why all those diets didn't work.  I was looking for an 'end result' instead of the peace of mind that comes with recovery.

I'd starve myself for X amount of time, using my 'willpower', and then I'd crash & burn...........and have binges to compensate for all that deprivation.  And so the yo-yo dieting cycle went.

When I found recovery, I realized I had to stop looking at the big picture, the end result, and take my life in small chunks and baby steps.  I'd have to learn to live for 24 hours at a time instead.  This was a whole new way of thinking for me, because I always always lived for the future...........when things would be perfect.......when I would be thin...........when the white knight would come and whisk me away to a magic castle. 

Fantasy prevents me from living with reality.  The Steps, and especially Step 4, taught me to live with the truth. If I don't like my behavior, then I have the ability to change it, with God's help. 

I am a work in progress and I will be for life.  My goal is not perfection, but truth and progress; working the steps to the best of my ability & committing myself and my food plan to God, one day at a time.