“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” - Mike Tyson, professional boxer.
Young and impressionable, we dreamt of being astronauts, professional baseball players, and even presidents of our country. We aspired to be like Dad, Grampa, or Uncle Billy.
Early on, our envisioned arrangements danced from one possibility to the next.
As we aged, our aims morphed, they began to take shape based on how we saw ourselves, and influenced by a million factors, we ended up in a totally different place in life. What began as a plan to conquer became a concession to the reality that we were not in control of our ultimate destiny. We fought life and life fought back. We had a plan until it fell apart, until we fell apart.
Our story didn’t end with a knockout punch, but a wake-up call. The bell rang on the old allowing the new to unfold. We count ourselves as a member of the magnificent miracle club. We got a second chance at writing the final script. And the beauty of this round is that we know our opponent so much better. We have come to expect the unexpected.
What we have figured out is that we don’t have this figured out. That is our secret weapon – our killer right hand. We have accepted the certainty that we can not be certain of anything, especially our sobriety. We wake up each morning as untreated alcoholics.
Healing begins with that acknowledgment. And that, along with a spirit of humility and service bring us to the best position we can be in as we navigate the un-known.
Embracing the ups and downs, enduring the punches that inevitably interject in our quest for serenity, we attempt to stay steady by recognizing that we don’t have this—that we are reliant on the script of the extreme creator, who uses people and pain to play out a master plan toward peace.
For we have not yet become but are becoming. It is in the living that we can relish the diversity of our dreams and desires. We get to live with bits of heaven and tastes of hell. It is the blows that sometimes bring us closer to appreciation. It is in the struggles that bring us nearer to the knower. Only when we humble ourselves can we hear and see the match from the makers’ vantage.
So where does that leave us? Well, we run from self-talk that says, “I’ve got this.” We do our best to stay vigilant while anchoring our confidence in a power greater than ourselves.
We value the new we we are. We get out of our heads and seek service. We anticipate the punches that will surely come our way and prepare to fend them off with the training we received from Alcoholics Anonymous.
We may not have become astronauts, professional baseball players, or presidents, but we are winning the fight of our lives today.
We ain't the same people we were when we fell. And, we ain't got this.
“I ain't the same person I was when I bit that guy's ear off” - Mike Tyson, professional boxer.
Thoughts and ideas for this blog post were taken and built upon from sober.coffee podcast #167 titled “The Pragmatic Alcoholic - coffee with Special Guest Mike”… The session dropped 6/5/2024. Click here to hear the podcast.
Photo by Bogdan Yukhymchuk on Unsplash
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Alcoholics Anonymous and AA are registered trademarks of Alcoholics World Service. Inc. References to AA, the 12 steps, and 12 traditions does not mean that AA has reviewed or approved the contents of this publication nor that AA agrees with the views expressed herein. This publication is intended to support personal growth and should not be considered a substitute for healthcare professionals' advice. The author’s advice and viewpoints are their own.
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