Wisdom Of The Rooms - 2025

[bluidkiti]

January 27

Quote of the Week

"If you are sober today, you are tied for first place."

When I was new to the program, I used to compare the amount of sober time I had against others. When I had 60 days, I felt less than those who got chips for 120 days. When I got 120 days, I envied those who made it to a year. When I finally got a whole year of sobriety, I watched the next person on the stage take a cake for three years, and I felt like a newcomer again.

When I confided these feelings to my sponsor, he told me I was comparing my insides with someone else’s outsides again. He told me this was a twenty-four-hour-a-day program, and that if I was sober today, I had just as much time as anyone else. Besides, he said, it’s the quality of your sobriety, not the quantity of days. As I started watching people with several years drink again, I felt the gravity of his words.

Today, I have what some consider to be long-term sobriety. Some newcomers talk to me as if I have it all figured out, and they tell me they wish they had the recovery to stay sober like I do. I quickly tell them that if they have today, they have exactly the same sobriety I do. I remind them, and myself, that I am just as close to a drink as they are, and that my daily solution is the same as theirs. For those who are still comparing, I tell them if you are sober today, you are tied for first place.