WILL

 

Definition of Will:
The mental faculty by which one chooses or decides upon a course of action:

Synonyms of Will:
Attitude, inclination, mind, resolve, 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 is when we try to make our will conform with God’s that we begin to use it rightly. To make this increasingly possible is the purpose of A.A.’s Twelve Steps. –As Bill Sees It p.42 | More…

How can we bring impatience under control without losing all drive and initiative? We labour in vain if we are seeking goals that are not in line with God’s will for us. –Walk in Dry Places/Mel B. | More…

The essence of all growth is a willingness to make a change for the better and then an unremitting willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails. –Daily Reflections | More…

When drinking, I lived in spiritual, emotional, and sometimes, physical confinement. Continued willingness and action keep me free, in a kind of extended daily probation–that need never end. –Daily Reflections | More…

Most people wish to serve God,…. but only in an advisory capacity. |More…  Your mind works very simply: you are either trying to find out what are God’s laws in order to follow them; or you are trying to outsmart him. | More…

Although willpower alone does not work in overcoming alcoholism, there is a place for the will, or willingness, in the search for a happy sobriety. This same willingness, so vital to finding sobriety, is also applicable in other areas of our lives.

The pioneers of AA suggested that getting sober required being willing to go to any lengths. This is the key to other achievements and to the overcoming of problems besides alcohol. –Walk In Dry Places/Mel B | More…

I looked up ‘Willing’ in the dictionary. It said: ‘Cheerfully ready’ – Cindy F. Faith is never an imperative for A.A. membership, sobriety can be achieved with an easily acceptable minimum of it.

Our concepts of a Higher Power and God–as we understand Him–afford everyone a nearly unlimited choice of spiritual belief and action. The main thing is that we are willing to believe in a Power greater than ourselves and that we live by spiritual principles. –As Bill Sees It p.201 | More…

The Program teaches that the essence of all growth is a willingness to change for the getter. Following that, we must have further willingness to shoulder whatever responsibility this entails, and to courageously take every action that is required. As Bill Sees It p.115| More…

I am and know and will; I am knowing and willing; I know myself to be and to will; I will to be and to know. –Saint Augustine / A Day At A Time | More…

Now that I’ve been sober a while, I still have a lot of decisions and choices to make. Whether it is business or relationships, etc., I still have to choose between self-will (what I want) or God’s will (what would be best for others or the situation) —Wisdom of the Rooms

For a long time, most of us tried to achieve happiness by serving our self-will. The idea of giving our self-will to God and following His direction makes us fearful.

When we are willing to trust a Higher Power in even one small area of our lives, we begin to see results. The more we work this program, the more sure we are that our peace and happiness lie in serving God, rather than ourselves. –Food For Thought | More…

We have made our list of persons we’ve harmed. Now we look at how willing we are to make amends.

We get ready to make amends by listening and talking to others in our group—and to our sponsor. We pray for help to be willing to make amends.

Becoming willing does not just happen. We have to work at it. We need to be willing to let go of the past. –Keep It Simple | More…

We needed to ask ourselves but one short question: “Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?” As soon as a man can say that he does believe, even in this small degree, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way. –As Bill Sees It p.219 | More…

I simply can’t stop drinking; a person declared as the meeting opened. That launched the evening’s discussion as thirteen people offered their ideas and suggestions.

One idea that emerged was that CAN’T was really WON’T. In dealing with a powerful addiction, we learned long ago that half-hearted approaches don’t work.

That’s why willingness is called the KEY to recovery. If the “Won’t” factor isn’t eliminated, our chances for recovery are very poor. –Walk In Dry Places/Mel B. | More…

At the moment we are trying to put our lives in order. But this is not an end in itself. I become willing to make amends, knowing that through this process I am mended and made fit to move forward, to know and desire God’s will for me. –Daily Reflections | More…

Many newcomers, having experienced little but constant deflation, feel a growing conviction that human will is of no value whatever.  However, there are certain things which the individual alone can do.

All by himself, and in the light of his own circumstances, he needs to develop the quality of willingness. When he acquires willingness, he is the only one who can then make the decision to exert himself along spiritual lines.

Trying to do this is actually an act of his own will. It is the right use of this faculty. –As Bill Sees It p.232 | More…

Sobriety fills the painful “hole in the soul” that my alcoholism created. Joy is not just the absence of pain; it is the gift of continued spiritual awakening.

My Higher Power presents many opportunities for deeper spiritual awakening. I need only to bring into my recovery the willingness to grow.  –Daily Reflections | More…

A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awareness of HP, there is something wrong.

It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God.

When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, “HP, what is your will?” A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer. –Oswald Chambers/My Utmost for His Highest | More…

You are not a son of God until you have faith in  god, until then you are a child of God -Joseph Prince | More…

Willpower has a role in recovery, but only in making a decision to turn the problem over to Higher Power. What’s needed to start the process is an admission of defeat, a willingness to seek a Higher Power, and at least enough open-minded-ness to give it all a fair chance. –Walk In Dry Places/Mel B | More… 

All that is asked of us is a willingness to trust that we will be given just what we need at each moment. We can dare to live, fully, just for today.

We can appreciate the extraordinariness of every breath we take, every challenge we encounter. When we withdraw from life, we stunt our growth.

We need involvement with others, involvement that perturbs us, humours us, and even stresses us. We tap our internal resources only when we have been pushed to our limits, and our participation in life gifts us, daily, with that push. –Each Day a New Beginning/Karen Casey | More…

My life had been saved by coming to A.A., three months later I went out and drank again. Someone told me: “You don’t have to believe.

Aren’t you willing to believe that there is a reason for your life, even though you may not know yourself what that reason is, or that you may not sometimes know the right way to behave?” When I saw how willing I was to believe there was a reason for my life, then I could start to work on the Steps. –Daily Reflections | More…

It was only after I hit bottom that I realized that I had to face the facts. –One Day At A time | More…

Why is it that we’ll accept information from some people but not from others? As we grow in sobriety, however, we develop the willingness to listen to people we would have once avoided. As we become more open-minded and willing, we can listen more and learn more. –Walk In Dry Places/Mel B. More…

My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, ‘Why don’t you choose your own conception of God?’ That statement hit me hard.

It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.

It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning. –Big Book p.12 | More…

Alcoholics have personality problems. They drink to escape from life. They cannot stop drinking unless they find a way to solve their personality problems. –24 Hours | More…

Have you cleared the path you want to travel? Decide what you want. Be as clear as you can be.

Say it. Write it. Share your idea with a friend. Then ask yourself if you are ready, willing, and able to do what it takes to have what you want.

Watch how you feel when you say what you want. Look for objections, blocks from within, obstacles on your path.

Look closely at yourself, your fears, your angers, your resistance. Let your feelings come up, acknowledge them, then let them go. –Journey To The Heart/Melody Beattie | More…

First, we take a look backward and try to discover where we have been at fault. As a traveller on a fresh and exciting A.A. journey of recovery, I experienced a newfound peace of mind and the horizon appeared clear and bright.

I had to look at the damage I had done, and become willing to make amends. Only then could my journey of the spirit resume. –Daily Reflections | More…

The difference between my will and God’s will is that my will starts out easy and gets hard, and God’s will starts out hard and gets easy. The main problem with my will is that it is first and foremost about me.  God’s will, on the other hand, is usually about helping others and with what’s right for all concerned. Ultimately, it’s about being comfortable in my own skin, and only choosing God’s will guarantees me that. –Wisdom of the Rooms | More…

I must always keep in mind that in every situation I am responsible for the effort and God is responsible for the outcome. I can “Let Go and Let God” by humbly repeating: “Thy will, not mine, be done.” Patience and persistence in seeking His will for me will free me from the pain of selfish expectations.  –Daily Reflections | More…

Willingness was one of the hardest concepts to get through my disease thinking.
According to the dictionary, the definition of will is “the power of choosing what one will do” and “willing, favourably inclined; ready.”

I figured, ok God, I am willing to ask You to grant me the willingness to let go of those substances that aren’t healthy for me. I changed my prayer and asked God to keep making me willing. As the saying goes, “Try it, you’ll like it!”, I tried it and I liked the results… –One Day At A Time | More…

In praying, we ought to consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when making specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this qualification: “. . . if it be Thy will.” –As Bill Sees It p.329 | More…

We’re still here, so that means God is still in charge of whatever should transpire today. Our part is to be willing to listen to God’s direction and to follow it. We don’t have to know where our steps are leading us. We can simply move forward, trusting that we will end up where we need to be. What we needed to do, where we needed to go, was always under the direction of God. It still is. Let’s rejoice that our part is doable. –Keepers of the Wisdom/Ruth Casey | More...

Will is the whole man active. I cannot give up my will, I must exercise it. I must will to obey, and I must will to receive God’s Spirit. When God gives a vision of truth it is never a question of what He will do, but of what we will do. You have no business to find out where God is leading, the only thing God will explain to you is Himself. –My Utmost for His Highest | More…

Sometimes, to get from where we are to where we are going, we have to be willing to be in between. Being in between can apply to many areas of life and recovery. We may have many feelings going on when we’re in between: spurts of grief about what we have let go of or lost, and feelings of anxiety, fear, and apprehension about what’s ahead. These are normal feelings for the in between place. Accept them. Feel them. Release them. –Language of Letting Go | More…

My attitude as a saved soul is that of profound humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness), a holiness based on agonizing repentance and a sense of unspeakable shame and degradation; and also on the amazing realization that the love of God commended itself to me in that while I cared nothing about Him, He completed everything for my salvation –My Utmost for His Highest | More…

Willpower is ineffective in dealing with a number of personal problems. The solution is not to fight problems in ourselves or in the outer world. By turning all matters over to the Higher Will, we will find the best way to deal with the evils within ourselves and with the opposition in our world. “Self-will run riot” was a problem in drinking, and it can be equally destructive in sobriety. Our will should be joined with the Higher Will for true success in living. –Walk In Dry Places | More…

The decision made in the Third Step demands continued acceptance, ever-increasing faith, and a daily commitment to recovery. It seems as though our members with the strongest faith are the ones who are best able to live in the present moment. Enjoyment, appreciation, and gratitude for the quality of our lives—these are the results of faith in life itself. When we practice the principles of our program, today is the only day we need. –Just For Today | More…

The decision made in the Third Step demands continued acceptance, ever-increasing faith, and a daily commitment to recovery. It seems as though our members with the strongest faith are the ones who are best able to live in the present moment. Enjoyment, appreciation, and gratitude for the quality of our lives—these are the results of faith in life itself. When we practice the principles of our program, today is the only day we need. –Just For Today | More…

The Power that brought us to this program is still with us and will continue to guide us if we allow it. We stop again and ask ourselves, “Who’s in control here, anyway?” This helps remind us that our Higher Power is in control. We seek our Higher Power’s will for the situation, whatever it is. We can do this in any number of ways: through prayer, talks with our sponsor or NA friends, or by attending a meeting and asking others to share their experience. When our Higher Power’s will becomes clear to us, we pray for the ability to carry it out. Finally, we take action. Anxiety attacks need not paralyze us. We can utilize the resources of the NA program to deal with anything that comes our way. –Just For Today | More…

There are things man has control over, and there are things man does not have control over. No matter how smart we get, whether it be in technology or science, there are things we will never control. The Great Spirit carefully protected and hid the control over certain things in the Unseen World. There are forces in the Unseen World that make sure humans don’t mess things up. The bottom line is, no matter what we do, nature will have the last say. Nature is the teacher, we are the students. May we honor and respect our teacher. Elders Meditations | More…

The difference between my will and God’s will is that my will starts out easy and gets hard, while God’s will starts out hard and gets easy. God’s will is about focusing on and helping others first. When I pray for the knowledge of God’s will and the power to carry that out, I become interested in what’s right for all concerned, the whole picture of which I am just a part. I find that as I become truly focused on helping others get what they want and need, my wants lessen, and soon I realize that I have much more than I need. Because helping others brings such peace and serenity into my life. –The Wisdom of The Rooms | More….