PERSPECTIVE

Definition of Perspective:
A particular attitude towards or way of regarding something; a point of view.

Synonyms of Perspective:
Outlook, viewpoint, standpoint, position, stance, attitude, approach, interpretation, etc

These notes are from recovery in AA and/or related 12 step programs.
Readers are encouraged to click external links for more detail.
We hope you find them helpful.

Love in fellowship.

It’s not what is going on that matters, but how we look at what is going on. It’s our relationship to it that counts. –Elders Meditations | More…

Nothing in the world has any meaning except the meaning we give to it. To be more effective at this, we need to consider our relationship with the Creator.

Our relationship to the Great Spirit determines how we will perceive the meanings we put to places, people, institutions, and things.

We need to let the Creator tell us and guide our thoughts about these relationships.
Any relationship that we have that is causing problems means we need to pray for a new point of view. –Elders | More…

We forget so we consider ourselves superior. But we are, after all, a mere part of the creation and we must consider to understand where we are and we stand somewhere between the mountain and the Ant.

We are really only one part of a great whole.
The universe is all connected

We are neither above nor below anything. We need not be ruler over anything, we need only to live in honor and harmony with the system. –Elders | More…

The Steps are reports of action taken, rather than rules not to be broken under pain of drunkenness. I have often wondered what the course of mankind might have been if the Ten Commandments had been presented in this same manner as The Twelve Steps, rather than as blunt commandments negatively expressed: “We honored our father and our mother.” “We remembered to keep holy the Sabbath.” “We honored the name of the Lord our God and took it not in vain.” “We bore no false witness against our neighbor.” In A.A., the reporting is clear and unmistakable. “Here are the steps we took,” say those who have gone before. The presentation of the Twelve Steps as reports of action taken, rather than as commandments to be followed, also forms the basis of A.A.’s conspicuous absence of any formalized body of dogma or doctrine. –A Member’s Eye View | More…..

In our daily lives we often take a very short perspective. We see what is worrisome today, what is pressing hardest, or what is most frightening or confusing.

Eventually, we may look back and have a totally different idea about what was truly important on this day. Let us take a moment now to remember what does endure, what we value most, what counts in the long run.

For a brief quiet time we can let go of all the anxieties of this moment.  –Touchstones | More…

Whatever happens to me is not nearly so important as the way I look at the happening — the way I feel about it. –Columbus, Ohio, August 1982/”Little Surrenders,”/Grapevine

We have all had times on the mount, when we have seen things from God’s standpoint and have wanted to stay there; The test of our spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have power to rise only. It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, but a man only gets there in order that afterwards he may get down. Spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mount. The mount is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. –My Utmost for His Highest | More…

A worker for God must not be as near the highest as he can get, it must be the highest. Be careful to maintain strenuously God’s point of view, it has to be done every day, bit by bit; don’t think on the finite. No outside power can touch the viewpoint. The viewpoint to maintain is that we are here for one purpose only, viz., to be captives in the train of HP’s triumphs. My Utmost for His Highest | More…

Only when we get a clear perspective on who we are and the necessary role we play in the lives of others who need our attention and who have a message we also need to hear. –Each Day A New Beginning

Just because you’re having a bad day doesn’t mean you’re having a bad life. It took a long time to develop a new perspective with my thinking, but by being willing to change, and by working hard at it, I now know that much of what my mind tells me is a lie. To counter this today, when I wake up I turn my thoughts over to my Higher Power, and I let Him direct my thinking. If I’m having a bad day, I know I can start it over at any time, and I do that by saying to myself, “Thy will, not mine be done.” This always works. Today, I know that if I’m having a bad day, it doesn’t mean I’m having a bad life. It just means it’s time to turn it over. –Wisdom Of The Rooms | More…

If the grass looks greener on the other side… Stop staring. Stop comparing. Stop complaining. Start watering the grass that you’re standing on. –Angel Chernoff

You can’t just sit down and talk about the truth. It doesn’t work that way. You have to live it and be part of it and you might get to know it. –Rolling Thunder