Thought for today:
A newcomer to DA asks, “Why should we hide who we are to outsiders when it comes to our membership in DA? Isn’t that dishonest? What do we have to hide?”
An old-timer in DA responds, “It’s not that we are hiding from anyone, although personal anonymity ensures that what we share at meetings stays in meetings. DA has learned from AA’s experience that when people break their anonymity at the public level, it invites confusion and can seriously erode our effectiveness and our message as a fellowship.”
Tradition 11.
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
A member shares:
“It’s important that I keep my public life separate from my DA program. This will protect DA more than me.
“If I ever publicly talked about my recovery in DA, using my last name and picture, it could compromise the fellowship. Everything I publicly endorsed – political, religious, etc. – could later be linked back to DA, diluting the DA message.
“The Tradition is clear: Personal ambition has no place in DA. As long as I keep my ego in check – and anonymity does that for me – I can best help DA.”
Keeping personal ambition separate from DA keeps DA safe
Compulsive debtors usually have a strong earning potential once they start living by the Twelve Steps. With a few PRMs under our belts, we find many career opportunities in our private lives.
But we need to make sure to promote our personal careers without sacrificing our anonymous DA fellowship.
We can still promote DA anonymously, though. The idea of “attraction rather than promotion” doesn’t keep us from notifying the public what DA is.
DA has its own website, listing meeting times and locations, and a public information committee. Groups also put up fliers in church caulk boards and bulletins, conducts information workshops in libraries that are open to the public. (And members blog anonymously from time to time too!)
We don’t hide DA. We want DA to flourish. We simply don’t sell DA, not in the traditional sense. We just put the word out, anonymously, to the public, so that debtors can find help if they want it.
Ask:
“Do I keep my personal ambition in check when it comes to DA, and that my DA fellowship needs me to reach out anonymously to the debtor who still suffers?
Meditation for today:
Our journey to happiness is usually no longer than from our heads to our hearts. But sometimes the way seems blocked.
When we find ourselves in panic or self-doubt and cannot find the way out of these feelings, we will often find that someone becomes available to help us discern the next step.
Over time we cultivate spiritual maturity. “When the student is ready, the teacher appears”.
Affirmations for today:
“I trust that Providence is working on my behalf.”
“I am cultivating thoughts of prosperous, and financial healing is coming to me.”
“I will earn $______.__ in unexpected income by __/__/__.” (Fill in the amount that you want to be surprised with, and when!)
Recommended reading:
DA’s Eighth Tool is D.A. and A.A. Literature: “We study the literature of Debtors Anonymous and of Alcoholics Anonymous to strengthen our understanding of compulsive disease and of recovery from compulsive debting.”
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Copyright 2015, PlentyOfTimeMoneyAndLove.com.
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