EVERYONE HAS A CHANCE TO BE SUCCESSFUL

People often handle life as they do bad weather.
They while away the time waiting for it to stop.
Yet the tide of opportunity comes to everyone.
Opportunity knocks all the time, but you've got to be ready for it.
When your chance comes, you must have the equipment to take advantage of it.
The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, for time and chance happen to everyone.
Take a second look at what appears to be someone's 'good luck.'
You'll find not luck but preparation, planning and success-producing thinking.
When you're prepared for opportunity your chance for success is sure to come.
The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.


©2006 by Max Steingart
Reproduce freely but maintain © notice

Reflection for the Day

When I sit quietly and compare my life today with the way it used to be, the difference is almost beyond belief. But things aren't always rosey; some days are a lot better than others. I tend to accept the bad days more easily on an intellectual level than I do emotionally, or at gut-level. There are no pat answers, but part of the solution surely lies in a constant effort to practice all of the Twelve Steps. Do I accept the fact that my Higher Power will never give me more than I can handle -- one day at a time?

Today I Pray
That I may receive strength in the knowledge that God never gives us more than we can bear, that I can always, somehow, endure present pain, whereas the trials of a lifetime, condensed into one disastrous moment, would surely overcome me. Thanks to God for giving us only those tribulations that are in proportion to our strength, never destroying us in our frailty. May I remember that fortitude grows out of suffering.

Today I Will Remember
Present pain is endurable.

Reflection for the Day

The experiences of thousands upon thousands of people have proved that acceptance and faith are capable of producing freedom from gambling. When we apply the same principles of acceptance and faith to our emotional problems, however, we discover that only relative results are possible. Obviously, for example, nobody can ever become completely free from fear, anger, or pride. None of us will ever achieve perfect love, harmony, or serenity. We'll have to settle for very gradual progress, punctuated occasionally by very heavy setbacks. Have I begun to abandon my old attitude of "all or nothing?"

Today I Pray
May God grant me the patience to apply those same principles of faith andacceptance that are keys to my recovery to the whole of my emotional being. May I learn to recognize the festering of my own human anger, my hurt, my frustration, my sadness. With the help of my Higher Power, may I find appropriate ways to deal with these feelings without doing harm to myself or others.

Today I Will Remember
Feelings are real -- I will acknowledge them.

Reflection for the Day

Since I came to GA, I've become increasingly aware of the Serenity Prayer. I see it on literature covers, the walls of meeting rooms, and in the home of new found friends. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Do I understand the Serenity Prayer? Do I believe in its power and repeat it often? Is it becoming easier for me to accept the things I cannot change?

Today I Pray: Grant me that the words of the Serenity Prayer never become mechanical for me or lose their meaning in the lulling rhythms of repetition. I pray that these words will continue to take on new depths of significance as I fit life's realities to them. I trust I may find the solutions, I need in this prayer, which, in its simplicity, encompasses all of life's solutions.

Today I Will Remember: Share the Prayer.

Reflection for the Day

In the past, and sometimes even now, I automatically have said, "Why me?" when I am trying to learn that my first problem is to accept my present circumstances as they are, myself as I am, and the people around me as they are. Just as I finally accepted my powerlessness over gambling, so must I accept my powerlessness over people, places and things.

Am I learning to accept life on life's terms?

Today I Pray
May I learn to control my urge to control, my compulsion to manage, neaten, organize and label the lives of others. May I learn to accept situations and people as they are instead of as I would like them to be. Thus, may I do away with the ongoing frustrations that a controlling person, by nature, faces continually. May I be entirely ready to have this defect of character removed.

Today I Will Remember
Control for the controller (me).



January 8 - Reflection for the Day
Today is the day for which I asked and for which I have been given strength.
That in itself is a miracle. The fact that I am alive is the great miracle from which all other miracles will flow, providing I continue to do the things that have brought me this far in my new life.

Am I grateful that I have been given this day?

Today I Pray
May God's goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life. May I never cease to wonder at the greatest miracle in my life -- that I am alive, here, on this green earth, and growing healthier with the life-preserving tools I have been given. Since God has chosen me to give me life and to preserve my life, even through the dangers of my gambling addiction, may I always continue to listen for His plan for me. May I always believe in miracles.

Today I Will Remember
My life is a miracle.



January 7 - Reflection of the Day
I'm beginning to see just how unnatural my old life actually was, and that it became increasingly so as my illness progressed. The longer I'm in the GA Program, the more comfortable this new way of life seems. At first, it was impossible for me to extend my hand to a newcomer; such an act was wholly unnatural for me. But it is becoming increasingly easier for me to reach out to another person. Sharing my experience, strength, and hope is becoming a naturalpart of daily living.

Have I learned that I can't keep what I've gotten unless I "give it away?"
Will I take the time to share today?

Today I Pray
May I share my love, my joy, my happiness, my time, my hospitality, my knowledge of things on earth, and my faith in a Higher Power. Even though I may not see the results of my acts of sharing, may I take joy in the acts themselves. May sharing, according to God's plan, become as natural to me as speaking or breathing.

Today I Will Remember
Be never sparing in caring and sharing.



January 6 - Reflection of the Day
Gamblers Anonymous, wrote Dr. Robert L. Custer in the foreword to the GA Blue Book, is a Program of the Twelve Steps "that's provides a framework of hope, structure, and friendship" for those who have chosen the road to a "successful adaptation to a life without gambling." He adds, "This road can be smooth or rocky, but in any case, it is never a painless journey..." As a recovering compulsive gambler, I can face any discomforts today, knowing that the pain of recovery will never be as acute and desperate as the pain of my gambling days.

Am I prepared to see each new day in the GA Program as a time for learning, growing, and making healthy choices?

Today I Pray
May I make prudent use of the power of choice that God has given me, to plan wisely, one day at a time, without becoming a slave to apprehension, regret or anxiety. I pray that God's will be done through the exercising of my own will, which He, in His goodness, has given me.

Today I Will Remember
God wills my will to be.

Reflection of the Day

"Today is my lucky day." How often in the past we said that, when it was an empty prophesy. Today those words are real; I am being given a second chance. In my gambling days, I sacrificed every "today" for a dream of some distant tomorrow. Of all that I lost, I grieve most for all those "today's" -- I cannot bring back. But today -- this day -- I have. I will not sacrifice or waste it.

Do I truly believe that today is mine, that today I can choose to be happy, to grow, and to learn to live, instead of counting on some pie-in-the-sky day in the far off future?

Today I Pray
I pray that the colors of this day may not be blurred by muted vagaries of the future or dulled by storm-gray remnants from the past. I pray that my Higher Power will help me choose my actions and concerns out of the wealth of my busyness that each day offers.

Today I Will Remember
I will not lose for today, if I choose for today.

Reflection for the Day

January 5
"Today is my lucky day." How often in the past we said that, when it was an empty prophesy. Today those words are real; I am being given a second chance. In my gambling days, I sacrificed every "today" for a dream of some distant tomorrow. Of all that I lost, I grieve most for all those "today's" -- I cannot bring back. But today -- this day -- I have. I will not sacrifice or waste it.Do I truly believe that today is mine, that today I can choose to be happy, to grow, and to learn to live, instead of counting on some pie-in-the-sky day in the far off future?

Today I Pray
I pray that the colors of this day may not be blurred by muted vagaries of the future or dulled by storm-gray remnants from the past. I pray that my Higher Power will help me choose my actions and concerns out of the wealth of my busyness that each day offers.

Today I Will RememberI will not lose for today, if I choose for today.


January 4th
For a good part of my life, I saw things mostly in negative terms. Everything was serious, heavy, or just plain awful. Perhaps now I can truly change my attitude, searching out the winners in the GA Program who have learned how to live comfortably in the real world -- without gambling.If things get rough today, can I take a quiet moment and say to myself, as the philosopher Homer once said, "Bear patiently, my heart -- for you have suffered heavier things"?

Today I Pray
May the peace of God that passes all human understanding fill the place within me that once harbored my despair. May an appreciation for living --even for life's trials -- cancel out my old negative attitudes. During heart-heavy moments, help me to remind me that my heart was once much heavier still.

Today I Will Remember
I am a winner -- in the best sense of the word.


January 3
My gambling compulsion is three-fold in that it affects me physically,mentally, and spiritually. As a compulsive gambler, I was totally out of touch,not only with myself, but with reality. Day after miserable day, like a caged animal on a treadmill, I repeated my self-destructive pattern of living. Have I begun to break away from my old ideas? Just for today can I adjust myself to what is, rather than try to adjust everything to my own desires?

Today I Pray
I pray that I may not be caught up again in the downward, destructive spiral that removed me from myself and from the realities of the world around me. I pray that I may adjust to people and situations as they are, instead ofalways trying, unsuccessfully and with endless frustration, to bend them to my own desires.

Today I Will Remember
I can change only myself.


January 2
Before I came to the GA Program, I hadn't the faintest idea of what it was to "Live in the Now." I often became obsessed with things that happened yesterday, last week, or even five years ago. Worse yet, many of my waking hours were spent clearing away the "wreckage of my future." "To me," Walt Whitman once wrote, "every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle."Can I truly believe that in my heart?

Today I Pray
Let me carry only the weight of twenty-four hours at one time, without the extra bulk of yesterday's regrets or tomorrow's anxieties Let me breathe the blessings of each new day for itself, by itself, and keep my human burden scontained in daily perspective. May I learn the balance of soul that comes through keeping close to God.

Today I Will Remember
Don't borrow from tomorrow.


January 1
In the old days, I saw everything in terms of forever. Endless hours ere spent rehashing old mistakes. I tried to take comfort in the forlorn hope that tomorrow "would be different" As a result, I lived a fantasy life in which happiness was all but non existent. No wonder I rarely smiled and hardly ever laughed aloud. Do I still think in terms of "forever?"

Today I Pray
May I set my goals for the New Year not at the year-long mark, but one dayat a time. My traditional New Year's resolutions have been so grandly stated and so soon broken. Let me not weaken my resolve by stretching it to cover"forever" - or even one long year. May I reapply it firmly each newday. May I learn not to stamp my past mistakes with that indelible word, "forever."Instead, may each single day in each New Year be freshened by my new-found hope.

Today I Will Remember
Happy New Day.

GUILT

Guilt

"When guilt rears its ugly head confront it, discuss it and let it go. The past is over. It is time to ask what can we do right, not what did we do wrong. Forgive yourself and move on."
--Bernie S. Siegel

"I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy . . . you can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in."
-- Katherine Mansfield

"If we don't forgive ourselves for our mistakes, and others for the wounds they have inflicted upon us, we end up crippled with guilt. And the soul cannot grow under a blanket of guilt, because guilt is isolating, while growth is a gradual process of reconnection to ourselves, to other people, and to a larger whole."
-- Joan Borysenko

"Light burdens borne far become heavy."
-- French proverb


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