Why Your Plan for Living Sucks – Sandy B.

About This Speaker Tape

Saturday Morning Live - 1994

Sandy B. maps out the brutal necessity of the First Step framing it as the total abandonment of a 'game plan for living' that has left the speaker in wreckage. He dismantles the illusion of control arguing that the alcoholic's brain is a liar that will try to intellectualize a way out of surrender. Using the metaphor of a lobster allergy to distinguish between a simple physical reaction and the mental obsession of alcoholism Sandy B. argues that sobriety isn't about avoiding a drink but about surviving the misery of being sober. He emphasizes that the only way to win is to stop struggling and allow the fellowship to interfere in one's life trading the pride of the 'ultimate loser' for a spiritual path that defies logic but produces results.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Welcome and New Year's greetings to the Saturday Morning Live group.
• 2:30 Discussion of the group's specific format: one step per week, followed by traditions and history.
• 6:15 Sandy B. describes the 12 Steps as a 'game plan for living' and the need to abandon the old one.
• 10:40 Laughter: The 'bragging in the other direction' regarding arrests and rock bottoms.
• 15:20 The 'lobster allergy' analogy to explain powerlessness over the first drink.
• 18:50 Analysis of the 'misery of sobriety' and the desire to seek relief from it.
• 22:10 The paradox of surrender: winning by giving up and the role of the sponsor saying 'Wrong!'.
• 25:40 Closing thoughts on the First Step and the Lord's Prayer.