The principles of the 12 steps can be very difficult or very simple to understand. This is an effort to simplify the meaning of the principles of the 12 steps for those who may be having difficulty. These are the principles that are incorporated into our daily lives as 'we walk the walk'. Employing each of these behaviors will help to rebuild a life of increased self esteem and self confidence. So, in my never ending quest to keep it simple, here are the action principles behind the twelve steps:
1. Honesty - The operative principle behind step 1 is honesty. If you cannot get honest about the scope of your problem, and honest about a sincere effort to resolve it you will not succeed. How about a definition of honesty as the absence of the intention to deceive? Who do we try to fool? Ourselves
2. Hope - In order to engage in a course of addiction recovery, we must have hope of success. If there is no hope, why try? Perhaps we have failed on our own, how about enlisting some help? A way to instill hope is to realize recovery is not a question of ability; after all there are millions in recovery, but rather persistence and application.
3. Faith - This stage of action is to begin to employ the recovery skills being learned. You can seek out help, but it is also necessary to utilize it. Our job is to become willing to do the right thing. A simple way to view the 'next right thing' is don't engage in your behavior. Have faith it will work.
4. Courage - This step is really about courage to honestly (see step 1) look at ourselves. Take a look at how our behavior has become warped to justify our continued behavior. We are here to take an honest assessment of ourselves.
5. Integrity - If we have truly done a thorough job of introspection and evaluation of our assets and shortcomings do we have the integrity to own up to it? It can be very difficult to be open and honest about our past behaviors. We accept the need for a dose of humility.
6. Willingness - Now that we have accomplished an inventory of the good and no so good aspects of our character and behavior, are we willing to change them? All of them? The important part in this 12 step principle is the willingness to let go of old behaviors.
7. Humility - Here we move further into action, in step 6 we became willing to as let go of our old behaviors, now we ask for help in actually letting go. Can we learn to forgive ourselves?
8. Discipline and Action - We are continuing to remove the barriers that can block forward sober growth. We are getting ready to sweep our side of the street clean. Make a list of all those people we have harmed both through actions and not being present to live up to obligations.
9. Forgiveness - Asking for the forgiveness of those we have intentionally or unintentionally injured is the order of the day. A key point here is to try to correct those injuries through action, not just words. It is highly recommended that guidance and help is utilized here. Asking forgiveness is not a gift to the other person, but rather an act of kindness to you.
10. Acceptance - To be human is to make mistakes. Hopefully our journey has led us to the point where we can readily admit mistakes and accept ourselves for being imperfect. We must also learn not to judge others but accept them for who they are, not our vision of who they should be.
11. Knowledge and Awareness - Here we search and become aware of following our path being aware of our purpose in life and actively pursuing it. I view this principle as just being aware, not being got up in the rush of life, making conscious effort to do the right thing and to be at peace.
12. Service and Gratitude - Having brought about a personality change sufficient to remain in recovery; we are empowered to demonstrate the new principles by which we live, in our daily life through example. We seek out and are available to help others in need.
There you have it. Simple actions you can practice each and every day to improve the quality of your life in addiction recovery and those people you come in contact with. These are the simple one word action principles of the 12 steps.
Email has metastasized from a convenience to a full-fledged addiction. Like Pavlov's dogs, we are trained to respond to the sound of the email ?bell.? We jump immediately to see who sent the email and are likely to from an instant reply. We were once only mildly addicted when we had to be near a Internet-connected computer, Now, our needs are fed any-time and anywhere through our ?crackberries,? Treos and iPhones.
The costs to business of this addiction are staggering. These are some amazing statistics and costs:
-According to IDC, 30% of our business day is spent in reading, writing, deleting and organizing our emails. This translates into an annual loss of $5000 per person. They estimate email growing at 18% per year. -Clearswift Limited, a UK security company, reported that 40% of US, UK and German workers spend an hour a day on personal email on the corporate email system. The US was by far the worst, costing 21-days a year per person on lost productivity. These numbers are from 2005! What has an additional two years done to these costs? -The National Technical Readiness Assessment Survey reported that just deleting spam costs us $22 billion dollars per year.
Bottom line, we have to get these costs under control. Unlike a drug addiction, we can't just eliminate email from our lives. It is a personal and business necessity, but we can control our behaviors so that it does not ruin our personal and professional lives.
Step 1: Recognize and admit the behavior. If you aren't sure, turn off email for 48 hours. If you experience any withdrawal symptoms, you know you have a problem.
Step 2: Recognize that you are in control You are the master of your email program. You have the power to implement all the following steps.
Step 3: Turn off the sounds of your email programs and devices. Remove the stimulus. Change the settings in Outlook or whatever your email program is. Turn off the pop-ups on Yahoo messenger. Eliminate the vibration from your phone.
Step 4: Reduce the auto-check frequency Change the frequency that your email program or device checks for emails. It doesn't have to check every minute. Increase it to 20-30 minutes. Be really brave, increase it to 3 hours!
Step 5: Exit your email program You really don't have to have Outlook running all the time. That was fine back when we weren't always connected. But, always-on email tempts us to check the Inbox. Even the little icon in the corner of our screens can beckon us.
Step 6: Schedule your email time Schedule your email reading and writing as you would any other appointment. Use those times when your natural productivity and creativity is at its lowest. Computer Associates used to force an email schedule on its employees; email was inaccessible at all other times. This practice could come back to lots of businesses.
Step 7: Filter heavily Use your email program's ability to sort and delete email automatically to help you prioritize your Inbox. For example, use your Inbox for those emails addressed to you and you alone. Create a separate folder for those on which you are cc:?d and bcc:?d. You can use color coding as an alternative. This effort takes some time to set-up, but it pays off very quickly.
Step 8: Kill Spam Immediately If it looks like junk and it didn't get caught by your spam filter, take action. Just hit the red ?x.? If it's important, you'll get another one.
Step 9: Don't respond to everything Every email doesn't need a reply. Sure, a ?thanks? is nice, but it is also feeding someone else's addiction.
Step 10: Don't copy the world Like Step 7, take a moment to send emails to just the people who need them. Use ?Reply All? carefully as well. Remember, don't be part of the problem.
Step 11: Three Replies and You're Out Don't get into extended real-time email exchanges. If an email conversation takes more than two replies, PICK UP THE PHONE! Conversations go much faster. The Computer Associates example above was designed to get employees to talk to each other and not hide behind emails.
Step 12: Pass on this advice to other Make this world a better place and encourage that others fight their addiction, as well. We are all contributors to the problem and can be part of the solution.:
Both Bill Urell & Lenny Greenberg are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Bill Urell has sinced written about articles on various topics from Web Development, Health and Online College. Pick up your Free Recovery Rolodex, Over 88 pages of self help and recovery tips, resources and links to enhance your life .The author,. Bill Urell's top article generates over 74000 views. to your Favourites.
Lenny Greenberg has sinced written about articles on various topics from Web Development, Business Loans and Marketing. Lenny Greenberg, Silicon valley consultant and author of the ?Low Cost Small Business Starter Kit? is the ?Small Office Maven.?He specializes in helping Home and Small Business owners maximize their resources and keep their costs down while providingthem. Lenny Greenberg's top article generates over 1900 views. to your Favourites.