People often say, '... I decided to get sober ...'.
Did they though? Did they decide?
What's a decision? A commitment to a course of action based on a sound analysis of the facts.
I look at my own 'decision' to get sober.
Were the facts there for a while? Years, buddy, years.
So why weren't the facts soundly analysed, why wasn't the course of action committed to before?
They were and it was, or apparently they were and it was: the commitment failed to convert into action, or I backtracked.
I don't think we decide.
I think the decision happens, and we happen to be there for it. Or not. Sometimes there's no consciousness, just action.
If you didn't decide last time, would you be able to decide in the future?
What about other people who are apparently not deciding to get sober, or deciding not to get sober?
Not their fault. The facts are there. You walk them through the reasoning. You put the penny in the slot, but the little man just doesn't dance.
I did not make my own decision to get sober, as one makes a fruitcake, a complaint, or a fortune.
That's the whole point of powerlessness.
And yet here I am, sober since the release of Sleepless in Seattle.
Better not throw away the 'decision', or it might not be given again.