Vintage retro poster style illustration of a person choosing a path forward with hope, for a post on decisions in recovery

You Decide!

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Vintage retro poster style illustration of a person choosing a path forward with hope, for a post on decisions in recovery“You are the person who has to decide. Whether you’ll do it or toss it aside, You are the person who makes up your mind. Whether you’ll lead or will linger behind, Whether you’ll try for the goal that’s afar. Or just be contented to stay where you are.” (Edgar Guest)

That little verse opened today’s Your Daily Reprieve, and it hit me right between the eyes. Nobody else gets to make that call for us. Not our past, not our fears, and not the folks who doubted us.

Recovery hands back something addiction took away: the power to choose. For years, a lot of us didn’t really decide much of anything. The craving decided. The hangover decided. Fear decided. Today we get to sit back in the driver’s seat, and that’s a gift worth celebrating!

Adjust the sails

Today’s Daily Ponderables carried one of my favorite lines from William Arthur Ward: “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”

I love that, because it’s honest. We don’t control the weather. Bills come due, people let us down, and plans fall through. What we do control is the next small move. A decision doesn’t have to be a giant leap. Sometimes it’s just tugging the rope a few inches and catching the wind a little better.

In my book Success-Full, Living Life with Purpose: Recovery Mode, I put it this way: “Deciding to leap and not taking action leaves you in the same place you started!” A decision without action is just a wish. So decide, and then do one thing about it today. Not “try,” do. That’s the whole point of the coin exercise I wrote about in Try?

Don’t let fear make the choice

This morning’s Courage to Change reading named something most of us know too well: “Fear can become a power greater than myself.” The writer goes on: “But today, with a Higher Power who is greater than my fears, I don’t have to let them run my life or make my choices for me.”

That’s the whole ballgame right there. Fear is allowed to ride along. It just doesn’t get to drive. I wrote about this years ago in Overcome Fear, Take Action, Now, and it still holds true.

The same page quotes an old Chinese proverb that made me smile: “That the birds of worry and care fly above your head, this you cannot change. But that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.” Worry will fly by. We decide whether it moves in.

Your Daily Reprieve also shared this one from Marianne Williamson: “It’s time to stop telling our big God about our big problems, and it’s time to start telling our big problems about our big God!” When a choice feels too big for me, that’s my cue to pray first and then move.

Listen for the inner voice

Today’s Meditation for the Day in Twenty-Four Hours a Day talks about “an inner voice that speaks to our hearts.” The prayer that follows is simple: “I pray that I may follow the leading of the inner voice. I pray that I may not turn a deaf ear to the urging of my conscience.”

Good decisions get easier when we slow down long enough to hear that voice. And look at the payoff the same reading describes: “I am no longer a dry leaf cast up and away by the breeze. I have found my place of rest, my place where I belong. I am content.”

A dry leaf doesn’t choose anything. It just goes wherever the wind blows. A sailor with a hand on the rope is a different story.

Scripture gives us a warm promise for every choice we make with God: “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:3 (ESV). That isn’t pressure. It’s an invitation to bring God along and trust that He wants good things for us.

Five ways to decide well today

  1. Name one decision you’ve been putting off. Write it down in one sentence. Fuzzy choices keep you stuck; clear ones get you moving.
  2. Ask the sail question. What part of this is weather I can’t change, and what part is the rope in my hands? Put your energy on the rope.
  3. Pause and pray before you choose. Even 60 seconds of quiet gives the inner voice a chance to be heard over the noise.
  4. Take one action within 24 hours. Make the call, fill out the form, or set the date. Don’t say one day I will… Make today day one! (There’s more on that in Make Your Someday, Every Day!)
  5. Talk it over with someone in your corner. A trusted friend, a counselor, or someone from your mutual support circle can help you see what fear hides.

The choice is yours, and that’s good news

In Recovery Thinking, 90-Days to Change Your Life! I wrote: “Believe that if it is going to be, it is up to me! Say YES to life and make it happen!” That isn’t about doing it alone. It’s about doing our part and letting God handle the rest.

We don’t have to linger behind. We get to reach for the goal that’s far away. Every sober morning is a fresh chance to decide again, and that’s something to be grateful for. Life is GOOOOOOOD!!!

Here’s my question for you: What’s one decision you’ve been letting fear make for you, and what’s the first small step you’ll take on it today?

Go, Go, Go… Dan 🙂

Books quoted in this post:

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A note on anonymity: Although I quote Al-Anon and other recovery literature here, nothing in this post should be taken to imply my membership in any specific mutual support group, in keeping with Tradition Eleven.

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Reflection note: I wrote this from my own daily readings. Quotes belong to their original authors and sources (Edgar Guest and Marianne Williamson, via Your Daily Reprieve, October 31; William Arthur Ward, via the Daily Ponderables Thought for Today; Courage to Change, October 31, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, via Daily Ponderables; Twenty-Four Hours a Day, October 31, Hazelden, via Daily Ponderables; a Chinese proverb quoted in Courage to Change; Proverbs 16:3, English Standard Version; Success-Full, Living Life with Purpose: Recovery Mode; Recovery Thinking, 90-Days to Change Your Life!). I used AI to help organize it and reviewed it before posting.

Image created with AI assistance.