Letting go of our limitations
“We don’t have to settle for the limitations of the past. We can examine and
reexamine our old ideas.”
Basic Text, p.11
Most of us come to the program with a multitude of self-imposed limitations that
prevent us from realizing our full potential, limitations that impede our attempts to
find the values that lie at the core of our being. We place limitations on our ability to
be true to ourselves, limitations on our ability to function at work, limitations on the
risks we’re willing to take-the list seems endless. If our parents or teachers told us
we would never succeed, and we believed them, chances are we didn’t achieve
much. If our socialization taught us not to stand up for ourselves, we didn’t, even if
everything inside us was screaming to do so.
In Narcotics Anonymous, we are given a process by which we can recognize these
false limitations for what they are. Through our Fourth Step, we’ll discover that we
don’t want to keep all the rules we’ve been taught. We don’t have to be the life-long
victims of past experiences. We are free to discard the ideas that inhibit our growth.
We are capable of stretching our boundaries to encompass new ideas and new
experiences. We are free to laugh, to cry, and, above all, to enjoy our recovery.
Just for today: I will let go of my self-imposed limitations and open my mind to new
ideas.