"Talk-about-it Tuesday" in Texas

Thanks to LouiseBT and ChrystopherJ for the idea of Talk-about-it Tuesday.

Being a native New Yorker transplanted to the Lone Star State, I have cultivated the best of all worlds when it comes to ATTITUDE: I generally think my location is the center of the universe.

(It helps if you read my posts with a well-tuned Sarcasm Filter.)

So today on "Talk-about-it Tuesday" in Texas, I'd like to point to a serious subject and then bring it back around to how fortunate I believe we are at Wealthy Affiliate.

It may sound preachy at points, but bear with me. I hope to offer some helpful takeaways.

Alcoholism and Addiction

Yeah.

Wow.

That's kind of heavy.

Well, yes, it is.

For those of us who are in recovery for any kind of addiction -- any kind -- we who have recovered have learned that "selfishness and self-centeredness is the root of our troubles." (The quote comes from the classic book Alcoholics Anonymous, also called "the Big Book.")

That may be a new thought for some of us: We might ask, "Isn't drinking too much, or drugs or sex or gambling too much, the problem?"

No.

Those are symptoms of the real problem.

The problem is deep inside us.

The problem is selfishness. And don't we have to admit that on any given day we each suffer from that a little?

The solution

The solution, then, is quite simple, even if it's not easy.

Breaking an addiction is all about finding a Power that can help us do what we can't do on our own. [Because of WA policies, I won't go into detail here, but this Power looks different for each of us; the important thing is that it must be a Power greater than we are.]

And because this solution will help solve the problem of selfishness, it actually can help almost anyone who feels miserable, anyone who feels alone, angry or scared. Not just addicts.

How WA figures into all this

Here's why "Talk-about-it Tuesday" leads me from talking about recovery to talking about WA.

People who recover from an addiction of any kind -- and we're talking here about a life-threatening addiction that we can't stop but want to; not necessarily smoking cigarettes or drinking coffee or binge-watching Netflix (I mean, these days, who wants to stop doing THAT?!) -- people who recover know that we can stay close to the Power that helped us only if we help others.

Addicts look for other addicts to help, sure.

But when we at WA help others on WA, we are actually recovering from a disease called "selfishness."

Let me ask you: how can any of us on our own recover from selfishness if we are relying on our self to do that work?

Good news, bad news, good news

My sponsor likes to say, "The good news is, the war is over. The bad news is, you lost."

He usually laughs when he says that. :))

What he means is, I have to admit total defeat over my tendency to (1) always know what's best for me, (2) control my circumstances, (3) think I can determine my ultimate destiny. These are just various ways of saying "I'm king of the universe, and I'm in charge."

I'm really not in charge.

"Sermon over!"

So I know I've been preachy here. I warned you! But please forgive me. I want to "talk about it" and be helpful.

Let me bring this home.......

Family. Helping. Love.

What WA gives each of us is an opportunity to "get out of ourselves and help someone." When I joined on May 13, I read so many comments about "paying it forward." You'd think as someone who's 57 years old and been in recovery for decades, I'd understand that, no problem.

But it sometimes took gentle prompts from WA members early on to remind me that as much as I am striving for financial success -- which we all are and which is totally fine in my book -- the path to success comes through serving others.

One final point that ties WA and recovery together:

How many times do we hear Kyle discussing in training how if we give readers quality content, our websites will get ranked and we'll get more traffic and make more sales?

The better we serve our readers, the more successful we'll be.

Thanks for reading this far, and feel free to react below.