When I drank my arrogance was a shield to protect me from others criticizing my drinking. I had a good job, wife and life, on the outside anyway. Why would anyone dare question my drinking? You don’t know me. You don’t know what I go through. Don’t you dare criticize me. My arrogance fueled my denial and actually made me believe that I really was something better than I was. My arrogance kept me at the center of my universe, living in the lie that I was the one hurting and in denial that I was hurting others. While I knew I drank too much for years, the denial and arrogance was too high for me to seriously ever consider stopping. My arrogance told me that others didn’t understand and that I was special and those in AA were different to me. My denial and arrogance always asked the same question: Why won’t everyone just leave me alone? This is my life. In sobriety it’s so important that I am humble and displaying humility. It’s important for me to remember that I am in many ways, just another alcoholic. I have an illness that many others like me have and that’s good, because there is a common treatment for it. I am not the special person, who can’t be treated, that I thought I was. Things are of course different for me but they do not make me better or worse than the next person. I’ve learned

through humility that we all suffer in our own unique ways and that we can be treated. I know that if I am humble today I can be a better man for myself by accepting the help I need and also by being there for others. I don’t need to be something better than I am and I don’t need to act like I am better than someone else. I don’t want to be arrogant anymore and I work hard on a daily basis to keep my ego in check. Twenty years of drinking let my ego run riot too much so it’s hard to simply pull it back in. The key for me is the will to be at peace and content with whom I am. I’ve learned through humility that contentment is actually what happiness is for me. It doesn’t have to be something special every day that brings me joy and laughter. If I can be humble and know that the simple things in life can bring me contentment, I can be a better person. Humility is one of the cornerstones of sobriety for me. Humility reminds me to be humble in my progression in recovery, that I am not in a sprint and that perfection is not a requirement. Humility also reminds me of how important it is to keep things simple and to take things One Day at A Time. Brian