SUCCESS

Definition of Success:
The accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Synonyms of Success:
Achievement, fruition, reward, fulfilment, triumphant, 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.

The key is this: We must choose to do what we really like.
If we want to be successful, we’ll have to work at it. –Keep It Simple | More…

There is no failure except in no longer trying Today I am also able to see my successes – and this makes me a winner. Today I am able to reveal my vulnerability and discover its strength. –Father Leo’s Meditations | More…

In our daily lives, we may dream of success and achievement. When success comes, we are faced with a new problem we could not have expected.

It is frightening to have a good thing in our lives and not be in control of it. We are just as powerless over our successes as we are over the worst of our behaviors.

We can only be faithful to our duties and ourselves. The successes, which flow from our work, come and go. Since we can’t nail them down, they may make us feel insecure. –Touchstones | More…

Success is at hand. Many of us, in our youth, were taught that success only came in certain shapes and sizes. And we felt like failures.

We need new definitions; it’s time to discard the old. Luckily for us, the program offers us new ones. –Each Day a New Beginning/Karen Casey | More…

The secret of success is constancy of purpose. –Benjamin Disraeli
In Twelve Step meetings, we don’t talk about counselling, treatment centers, or non-program reading.

Many of us have been helped in these ways, but we shouldn’t confuse them with Twelve Step programs. We must keep our Twelve Step programs pure.

Certainly, we should use these sources if they help us, but not in our program meetings. There, we must stick to the basics that have helped addicts recover all over the world for many years.

Steps, traditions, meetings, and sponsorship these things work, no matter what else is in style. –Keep It Simple | More…

We have always rallied to meet and transcend failure and crisis.
Problems have been our stimulants.

How well, though, shall we be able to meet the problems of success? –As Bill Sees It | More… (p.207)

What’s the definition of success? It’s when you get up in the morning, go to bed at night, and in between you do something you’re good at.

May you be blessed to do what you do best. And to do it over and over again. Working hard at something you don’t have a knack for doesn’t pay in the long run. Look harder. Find where you belong. –Prayables | More…

In AA, success means staying sober while using the AA principles in our daily affairs. We can be successful people in all walks of life.

Our Higher Power will show us where our place in life should be. That should be success enough for any of us. –Walk In Dry Places/Mel B. | More…

For most of us, success has always been a heady brew;  even in our new life, it’s still possible to fall into the dangerous trap of “big-shot-itis.” As insurance, we ought to remember that we’re free today only by the grace of God.  –A Day At A Time | More…

For many of us, the ability to handle adversity is a fairly recent phenomenon. Our path forward is as certain as our commitment to it, our belief in the strength of the program, and our faith that all is well even when times are troubled.

No one ever promised that our new way of life would be always easy. But we have been promised that we’ll arrive at our proper destination if we do the footwork and let God do the navigating.  –Each Day A New Beginning/Karen Casey | More…

There is little impetus to further effort without some sense of achievement whether successes are large or small. To become dependent on success alone, large or small, is the road to egomania, disillusionment, or even suicide –Unknown

We know today that there’s no such thing as a self-made person. We all need each other, and at various times we would have been lost without assistance that was generously and freely given.

Everyone has had such assistance at one time or another. We are not entirely self-sufficient. The true role of self-sufficiency is to use our talent and opportunities wisely and beneficially in cooperation with others. Our own success in whatever we do will be enhanced as we continue to acknowledge our need for others. –Walk In Dry Places/Mel B. 28/09 | More…

Sometimes when we fulfil a goal, we hesitate to “pat ourselves on the back” for fear that we will seem arrogant. But our Higher Power wants us to succeed, and wants us to share with our loved ones the pride we take in our accomplishments.

When we share our successes with others, they often begin to believe that they can achieve their goals as well. When we succeed, we help lay the groundwork for others who follow in our path. –Just For Today | More…

The secret of success is constancy of purpose. –Benjamin Disraeli In Twelve Step meetings, we don’t talk about counselling, treatment centers, or non-program reading. We must keep our Twelve Step programs pure. Steps, traditions, meetings, sponsorship—these things work, no matter what is in style. –Keep It Simple | More…

Should our present success continue, people will commence to assert that AA is a brand new way of life, maybe a new religion, capable of saving the world. We shall be told it is our bounden duty to show modern society how it ought to live … Fortunately most of us are convinced that these are perilous speculations, alluring ingredients of that new heady wine we are now being offered, each bottle marked ‘Success’! Of this subtle vintage may we never drink too deeply. –Grapevine: Bill W., April 1948

The five H’s combine into a powerful formula for success. Starting with Hope, passing through Honesty into a gracious Humility, we become Human again, taking our rightful places in society and, by living a well rounded life, develop an integrated personality free of the stresses that urge us to drink. Finally, through Helpfulness we express gratitude and pass on to others some of the blessings we have enjoyed these recent weeks, months, years. Truly a Magic Formula for Continued Sobriety…. –Grapevine, Scarsdale YN, December1957.

If only the human being could understand the power of proper relationships, the need for power and control could be abandoned. 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. Any relationship that we have that is causing problems means we need to pray for a new point of view. –Elders Meditations | More…

For many of us, the ability to handle adversity is a fairly recent phenomenon. Our path forward is as certain as our commitment to it, our belief in the strength of the program, and our faith that all is well even when times are troubled. No one ever promised that our new way of life would be always easy. But we have been promised that we’ll arrive at our proper destination if we do the footwork and let God do the navigating. –Each Day A New Beginning | More…

Any form of success was frightening and unfamiliar. Sometimes when we fulfill a goal, we hesitate to “pat ourselves on the back” for fear that we will seem arrogant. But our Higher Power wants us to succeed, and wants us to share with our loved ones the pride we take in our accomplishments.

When we share our successes with others in NA, they often begin to believe that they can achieve their goals as well. When we succeed, we help lay the groundwork for others who follow in our path. Today: I will take time to savor my successes. I will share my victories with an “attitude of gratitude.” -Just For Today | More…