It is said that the alcoholic and addict in the active throws of their addictions lack the ability to choose to use or not to use. Though true in rare instances this is hardly the norm. We have all been given the ability to choose right from wrong and is it not wrong for you and I to place our preventive maintenance (The Program) on the back burner? We make choices every day that will either contribute to our sobriety or hinder it. If we take that first drink or use that first narcotic then it is obvious that we have not been making the right choices as it applies to working a successful program of recovery.

We set ourselves up to succeed or fail and that is our choice no one else’s.

No one can say that he or she lacked the ability to choose to drink or not to drink; to use or to stay clean. It is only after the first drink or drug that the phenomenon of craving sets in and the ability to choose becomes harder than ever but we still do have the ability. It’s a funny thing this philosophy that says we have no choice. We never seemed to have a problem choosing to take that second drink or second hit.

This week I choose to look at my program deeply with a sponsor or someone I have made myself accountable too. I will take an inventory and reprioritize my strategies. This week I not only decide to tune up my program, I choose to start the tune up today by way of contact with my Higher Power.