It says in How it Works that "some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely." . The word absolutely doesn't allow much wiggle room. If it means that I have totally and completely let go to all of my old ideas, then to be honest I haven't made much progress in this department.
The reason I can tell I still have old ideas is that I still have character defects. If the character defect is a weed, then at the end of the root of each character defect is the seed of an old idea that I haven't yet let go of. Here's just a few of the ideas I'm still obviously carrying around:
- It is my wife's responsibility to make me happy.
- I've been put on this earth to achieve something.
- The chief aim of life is to be comfortable.
- If I act considerately towards you, you should act considerately towards me.
- I will someday receive extra points for trying to do everything perfectly --ad infinitum...
Even though I obviously haven't let
go of all of my old ideas, I must have let go of enough of them for my
Higher Power to come in and work in my life. Because my result hasn't
been "nil" at all, it's been a far better life than I could possibly imagine.
Thanks totally to the program and fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.