Big changes

I am not in favour of making big changes in my life. Most of the time, I'm trying to make a big change because I don't like how I feel. Generally, big changes don't change how I feel. They might for a few days or weeks, but then I'm back to square one. They are also immensely disruptive, so the net effect is negative.

The advice: 'Grow where you're planted' I've found to be correct almost all of the time.

Sure there are exceptions. If you're living with someone violent, leave. If you don't have a job, get one. If you're eating Twinkies all day, maybe try a salad. If you spend all day on YouTube filling your head with nonsense, maybe get some real education.

But early recovery is a really bad time to disinherit your children (or parents), change career, join the French Foreign Legion, move to a survivalist compound in Alberta, or convert your house into a mockup of a Benedictine abbey.

Completing the first nine steps then spending much if not most of my free time on service and sponsorship completely transformed my experience of my life. Once my experience was transformed, I realised I was already content.

When I look back at changes I wanted to make before this process was complete, I'm really glad I did not. The current me would not have appreciated the previous me, all disturbed and dysfunctional, making life-changing decisions.

So, complete the first nine steps, sponsor maybe a hundred people, and then see if you need to change your life.