This weekend - more thaan ever - stick with those who are winning the battle over addiction. Have a very happy and safe New Years !

This is a great time of year to sweep away any lingering resentments and limiting beliefs, and make more room for the growth and opportunity that lies in the year ahead.

If nothing happens in HP's world by mistake, what are the "coinci-gods" in your life trying to teach you?

The only thing bigger than fear is faith. Focus on what you have deep, abiding faith in, and your fears will subside.

The problem with claiming to be a “perfectionist” is that perfection is unachievable, so the claim and the pursuit create undue stress. Instead, relax and simply enjoy the opportunity in sobriety to live according to well-defined values and standards.

Merry Christmas everyone!! It's a great day to carry the message of hope, love, and joy - much love to all!

I am so inspired by all of you and your willingness to openly share your experience, strength, and hope with each other. Thank you for your support, and Merry Christmas!

“This too shall pass” is not just a slogan to help us through the hard times; it is a reminder of the impermanence of all things, a step to letting go.

Learning to say “thank you” without downplaying myself in the process taught me to be gracious, which in turn replaced the false humility that had stood in the way of accepting your kindness and support.

Sometimes all the inspiration we need is the promise of a new day, whatever it brings.

When you feel wronged, skip the righteous indignation and go straight to compassion and forgiveness. It clears the way to extraordinary growth.

You know grace is limitless, right?

Ok, which one of you hid my excuses?

Overjoyed to consider how vast is our capacity for love and service by saying "yes" to sobriety.

“You have to give it away to keep it,” they told me, and then showed me that, while I didn’t think I had anything to give, even one more day without a drink or drug meant I could give hope.

A funny thing happened on the way to my sobriety: I finally looked up from my misery, and saw a life worth living.

What would life be like if you were always the first to extend compassion and understanding, to offer the “olive branch” of peace, and to give others the benefit of the doubt?

Confronting an issue and being confrontational are two distinctively different ways of taking something or someone on. Pause when agitated, and be mindful of when each or both – or neither –is warranted.

Mindfulness is the ability to suspend one’s ego in order to see how best to apply our mind and conduct for the greatest good. More simply put, to get out of ourselves and into service to others, with the faith and confidence that this is why we’re here. Being clean and sober opens the door to this great clarity of mind once we first learn to calm our minds.

Just back from my meditation retreat - excited to share thoughts with you this week on mindfulness! While I was gone, the LTP group popped over 700! You all are amazing.

Off to a weekend retreat in Crestone. No cell while I'm there, will "re-plug" on Sunday!

Thinking this early morning about the miracle we all are - we are proof that anything is possible! Thanks everyone, for your commitment to being clean, sober, and of service – you make the world a better place.

Life becomes infinitely more simple when I focus more on having a positive influence on the outcome than I do on trying to control it.

Tell the truth, when it's the truth, only to the person(s) who can do the most good with it.

We don't need drama - to create it or perpetuate it - to prove we're alive.

For every excuse I had, you gave me alternatives, until I was left with nothing but possibilities. Thank you.

The Shift

At what point did my sobriety go from being about the horror I was trying to get past to the brilliant life I was moving toward? It happened when I finally believed that I was worth saving, not just that you believed it. That came from showing up – again and again – to hear the same, predictable platitudes – again and again – about “one day at a time” and “this too shall pass” and “let go and let God”, and a hundred others just like these, and you wouldn’t stop talking about the progress in your life from following these directions, so I finally started listening.

After hearing came contemplation and from contemplation came application and action. From that application came freedom, a bit at a time, then joy. By focusing on the similarities over the differences, I finally saw the great human potential that is in each of us, self included, not just the people who seemed more worthy of grace and opportunity.

And by taking comfort along the way in all the little victories in my sober life – from very simple tasks like balancing my checkbook to the bigger "wins" of not taking any more human hostages – I began to put a life together that became something to look forward to. Because you taught me how to start every day with a clear, sober head and a grateful heart, today anything is possible.

And so it goes. A day at a time.

We've reached the 500ish mark in our happy, joyous, free little community. How exciting! Thank you for your support.

Pause. Breathe. Pray. Do the next right thing. Repeat.

The past doesn't equal the future - for better or for worse - unless I insist on it.

I came to believe not only that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity, but also that a purpose greater than I awaited my transformation.

I started to experience real progress on my path when I got more committed to asking the right questions than to having all the answers.

Heard in a meeting: "The armchair is the spaceship for the insane. Get up, get out, and get into life already!"

I started to take a stand for my life when I stopped equivocating: I got out of “yeah, but…” and into “yes, and…”.

Don’t visit the past to second-guess yourself. Instead, create a “second-strategy”: only look back to identify the change in thoughts, language, and action that can lead you to a better future.

Home For The Holidays

Whether or not you can be home with your family for the holidays, you can be at home in your grateful heart.

Grateful today for a great relationship with my family. They've seen me and loved me through some crazy times.

More gratitude...

Grateful today for my spiritual awakening. Grateful that I got my life back 25 years ago. Grateful that I can carry the message.

SHARE WEEKLY: ...We Will Be Amazed...

A sentence leading into the 9th Step Promises in the Big Book proclaims that “If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half-way through,” meaning that we will see significant progress in our recovering lives in a very short time.

At the time of my first reading of that passage, my downs outweighed my ups, and I was more accustomed to being horrified and ashamed than amazed. So that was my first real sense of promise from the 12 steps; that if I were thorough in my inventory, in sharing that inventory, in making my amends, and in doing whatever was necessary to repair the damage of my past, I would start to experience what felt like a very important shift.

I couldn’t figure out what that amazement would be like exactly – would it be a big, one-time, burning-bush moment? An ongoing, smell-every-rose zest for life? I didn’t know anything except that I wanted, more than anything, to replace the sadness and uncertainty that I felt most days, and amazement sure sounded like a great alternative.

But first I had to go through the eight preceding steps before I could truly know any of the ninth-step promises, amazement included. The first step – admitting that I was powerless over alcohol and that my life had become unmanageable – was the easy one, one I had plenty of evidence to support. It was the powerlessness and unmanageability with alcohol that had led me to my first meeting and gotten that book in my hands to begin with.

The next seven steps ended up giving me quite a bit more trouble, and it took more than a year to work them. But by the time I finished, I started to feel what I believed it meant to be amazed, which was this pervasive wonder and gratitude from seeing that my life could evolve into something beautiful and useful.

My amazement – and usefulness – grew with each formal pass through the steps, which I did three times in the first five years of my sobriety. Along the way, my life turned from something to get away from into something to look forward to. And each subsequent time through the steps, whether formally or informally, I have became more and more willing to be searching, fearless, moral, and honest, and my life and ability to serve others has improved proportionately.

Which is amazing. Still.

The good news is...

My Let'sTalk Money game is on sale thru 11/23 @coachingtoys.com! http://ping.fm/Zqq6o

It's a great moment when you realize that your life has become something to enjoy rather than something to constantly repair.

It's a life full of possibility when I choose wonder over worry.

There is no surer way to relieve my own suffering than to help someone else relieve theirs.

Looks like I picked the right mantra for today. What a day. Got tested to the nth degree.

My mantra today: Do the next right thing, do it the right way, do no harm in the process.

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me...and I'm feeling good. Nina Simone

Freedom begins when you choose humility over humiliation. http://ping.fm/GpmaG

Many thanks to Karen Casey for her wonderful advice on writing!

Me, to a sponsee: "Practice life with people, not on them." http://ping.fm/RZ3UT

My sponsor:"Wherever you go, there you are. And wherever that is, you're always in the middle. Just make sure it's the best middle for you."

"In the end, only kindness matters."

Test 3

Working with Ping to get the word out. Forgive the interruption. :)

test 2