God. Goals. Grind.

Some days, my regimen to stay spiritually fit and stable is as simple as “God, Goals, and Grind.”

Prior to joining the Fellowship of AA, I was a raging agnostic. 8 years and a spiritual awakening later, I have faith and a relationship with a Higher Power of my understanding, whom I embraced in the way the AA Big Book suggested: “Why don’t you form your own conception of God?”

And while years of doing recovery work (since 1993) have afforded me many tools and modalities to stay stable and spiritually fit, some days are simply brutal. And on those days, about all I can do is to “matriculate through AA’s rugged school of life” with God, Goals, and Grind.

If those were the only modalities I ever used to live life on life’s terms in a stable, sober way (in the face of the tremendous challenges presented by my Bipolar Disorder and Alcoholism), I would be in deep trouble.

But when trials and tribulations strike, these fundamentals are my go-to. And they have saved me countless times.