As a non-drinker for many years I was surprised to learn a few years ago, when I accompanied a client to an AA meeting that there is a price of admission to be paid in order to become a member.
The price of admission is, in fact, admission. To become a member of this worldwide organization a person must admit to having a problem with alcohol over which they have little to no control.
Almost all of the work I do is centered around what I have come to call The Five Truths. These truths represent universal principles that I believe both individually and collectively have played a leading role in bringing each of us to precisely where we are in our lives today.
One of those truths “You can’t fix what you won’t acknowledge” serves as the reason for the AA organization to demand that all members acknowledge their struggle with alcohol.
The power of this truth is stunning in its simplicity.
It takes tremendous courage and inner strength to bring about lasting change. That courage and inner strength needs an ignition source and it is our willingness – often only after a lengthy and painful battle – to acknowledge a deep and hurtful truth that will serve as the spark necessary for change to begin.
Acknowledgment of a problem/challenge must take place before healing can begin. Recovery and repair can never get started before acknowledgement has occurred.
In recent weeks we have discussed the bravery required to be vulnerable. Do not confuse vulnerability with weakness. It is strength on steroids and can only begin with a clear understanding that “You can’t fix what you won’t acknowledge.”
Few of us get through life without the need for help along the way. Help seldom arrives unannounced, it needs to be sought. Yet so many folks subject themselves to enduring years of torment by allowing ego, shame or false pride to prevent them from acknowledging their imperfections.
I’m not suggesting that bearing our souls to every passing stranger is a valuable exercise in personal growth, but I am saying we all have people in our lives who are witnessing our pain and are desperate to help but know that offering to do so before we ask for help is an exercise in futility.
We owe it to ourselves to forge lives of happiness for without it we cannot be everything else we strive to be. And we further owe it to ourselves to seek happiness regardless of our situation for happiness is a state of mind, not a result of circumstances.
But our happiness is often suppressed by the weight of an enormous lid that we have placed upon it, keeping it sealed tightly deep within us.
That lid can be loosened and removed. Doing so may not be easy, but it can be done. It requires courage but once we recognize the analgesic properties of courage, bravery flows freely.
And the very moment we use that new-found courage to face and acknowledge our challenges is the same moment our lives change trajectory and aim towards where we want to be.
We can’t fix what we won’t acknowledge comes with a powerful 3 step formula.
- Acknowledge.
- Seek help.
- Embrace your new beginning.
Till we read again.
