“… we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely. … Half measures availed us nothing.”
“Many of us exclaimed, ‘What an order! I can’t go through with it.’ Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.” (Chapter 5, Big Book)
There is an apparent contradiction here: ‘Do this 100%! But you won’t succeed.’
Here’s how I resolve this:
I organise my life to take the necessary actions fully and swiftly. When I come to a disagreeable action, I take it. There are slip-ups, and the results can look shabby, but the job is done.
Think of it like a cross-country race: one runs the entire race, not cutting across fields to avoid difficult patches, and one keeps going. One might slip over, get covered in mud, cut oneself on brambles, but one has completed the course. One might be a slow runner in absolute terms, but one committed to the course and, once started, did not stop.