How well is that working for you?

Page 58 of the book 'Alcoholics Anonymous' suggests that a fundamental lack of honesty is pretty much the only surefire block to recovering. Sometimes this manifests as someone keeping some unsavoury secret to themselves. More often than not, however, the people that do not make it are the ones who cannot consistently follow the simple instructions of the programme, instead retaining their own attitudes and beliefs and following their own counsel. What is the dishonesty? It is the inability to admit that their way has failed and that their attitudes, beliefs, and plotted course of action are therefore to blame. Disconcertingly, such people are often partly compliant with the ideas and actions of the programme, but unfortunately the programme, to be successful, requires the jettisoning of all old ideas, not some. The question is this: how well is your way working? If the answer to this does not prompt an enthusiastic abandonment of self and a spirited uptake of this way of life, the problem is one of honesty. How do I know any of this? Because every time I have been failing, either to stay sober or abstinent from another destructive behaviour or to live fruitfully, the root cause is always the retention of an old idea, usually concerning what I think will make me happy. In other words, I am talking about myself.