|
|
|
|
"You must deal with the curve balls of life if you ever want to hit a
home run." - James A. Smith
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Radio: My Recent Trip to A.A. (Alcoholics
Anonymous)
|
|
|
|
|
|
I had a speaking engagement in Atlanta, GA. two weeks ago. I
also had the pleasure of visiting with friends in the area. One of
my friends has recently graduated from a facility that helps people with
addictions - congrats to you! She is now attending A.A. meetings every day.
I had never been to an A.A. meeting but considering my destructive past, and
my current passion for teaching and promoting personal growth, I wanted to
go check it out. I've always wondered how effective A.A. is and how they do
their program.
I attended two meetings. The first one had about 150 people and one
scheduled speaker who gave his life story about alcoholism. He has been
sober for about 30 years now. It was certainly a train wreck story that anyone
could relate to, alcoholic or not. I say anyone because his story was about bad
choices, consequences, how he started making good choices, and the
wonderful benefits he's now reaping.
The second meeting was more of an open platform. This one had about 40
people and many of them spent two to five minutes sharing their own
experiences (testimony). What I witnessed was fascinating. I would classify it
as "eloquent in its simplicity." Here's a room full of people who've had an
obvious problem changing their behavior. The basis of the program, from
what I noticed;
- admitting you have a problem that you alone can't handle
- seek help from a higher power and others
- spend the rest of your life in reinforcement and accountability.
It's somewhat easy to sell someone on the first two steps. But the 3rd one is
the one that stunned me the most. People don't think they need to spend the
rest of their life doing reinforcement and accountability. We will do things like
eat or bathe (and dare I forget...watch TV) the rest of our lives because we're
convinced they're important.
Think of the one behavior you would like to change but you know it's the
toughest. Now look at how simple the three steps above are. Some folks may
need deeper medical or psychological help but I'm convinced that
reinforcement and accountability will help most of us change our difficult
behavior. These people are constantly getting together (accountability) and
hearing (or telling) others say how good it is to be sober, how they did it, and
how you can do it to. You keep hearing that over and over and after a while
you really start believing it!
All of us have fears and struggles when it comes to changing behavior. The
video below shows actor, James Woods, playing Bill Wilson, the founder of A.
A. He's explaining to his wife why he doesn't stop drinking. His explanation
applies to all of us when it comes to making difficult changes in behavior.
Knock'em alive!
James
|
|
|
|
Inspiration: Why People Have a Hard Time Changing (4:12)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You may wish to click the "play/pause" button to pause the video while it loads
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Perseverance at it's finest!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You may wish to click the "play/pause" button to pause the video while it loads
|
|
|
Our radio show discusses the good, the clean, the pure, and the positive. If
you have an issue or story that shares some positive light, or one that needs
some positive light, please email radio@iwasborntowin.com or call
877 U.CAN.WIN (822.6946)
AM1280: Mondays 6-7pm, EST.
|
Humor: Video - Man Outrunning Cheetah (0:18)
|
