We discover that we are not alone in our human frailties and we are not the worst person in the world, as we might imagine.
I've been carrying a secret belief about myself – that I'm worse than other people. Not just flawed like everyone else but fundamentally more damaged more broken more wrong. I look at others in the program who seem to have their lives together and I think they couldn't possibly understand how bad I really am.
We discover that we are not alone in our human frailties and we are not the worst person in the world as we might imagine. Reading this brought tears to my eyes. Not the worst person in the world. I'd been so convinced that my particular collection of character defects made me uniquely terrible. That my specific mistakes were unforgivable in ways others' weren't.
But Step Five reveals the truth – I'm human like everyone else. My frailties aren't unique. My mistakes aren't unprecedented. I'm not alone in struggling with these things. Other people have controlling tendencies and people-pleasing patterns and shame and fear too. I'm not the worst. I'm just human.
Practice
When the voice in my head insists I'm the worst person in the world, I can challenge it with evidence from meetings. I've heard others share similar struggles. I've seen people accepted despite their frailties. I'm not uniquely terrible – I'm humanly flawed like everyone else.
Today’s Reminder
My frailties are human not uniquely terrible.
