Just for Today - March 2nd, 2026 with Lorenzo M. - Success

0:00All right, welcome to the Anonymous Podcast, 2026, just for today's series on your host, Douglassel. If you've been rocking with us for years or listening for your very first time, you're welcome here. And you're encouraged to participate. This is not just a podcast, this is a community. If you want to read it just for today, if you want to share it on the just for today episode, join a book study, be a part of the dialogue, welcome, we'd love to have you. Reach out to us, you can chop it up on the Facebook page or the podcast number, which that'll come directly to me. But either way, if you have the desire, jump on in and we got you. Please know this, it never cost anything to listen to any of these episodes. We don't charge, we don't make any money from doing it, we don't pay our guests to come on. This is truly 100% a labor of love.

1:00Every episode is created by addicts in recovery who are eager to participate and grateful to be of service. And we won't have it any other way. As we focus on that magic six letter word, others, we collectively believe if one person benefits from our efforts, including one of us, then without a doubt it's all worth it. Alright, so here we go. This podcast is a commentary and discussion of narcotics and anonymous literature intended to enrich the recovery experience. This is not, alright, let's double us, double down on this. This is not a replacement for sponsorship, step work or participation in any other form of the fellowship. Please use this podcast as an additional resource as we continue to grow together. The anonymous podcast does not represent NA. We are not affiliated with NA as a whole. We are simply addicts seeking recovery, nothing more, and for sure nothing less. Now let's get started. Hello, my name is Michelle C. My clean date is August 21, 2004.

2:14I attend meetings in Western North Carolina. Nature of Recovery is my home group in Wainsville, North Carolina, and we meet on Tuesdays and Thursday nights at 7 p.m. This is the just for today reading for March 2, success. Any form of success was frightening and unfamiliar, basic text page 14. Before coming to NA, few of us had much experience with success. Every attempt to stop using on our own had ended in failure. We had begun to give up hope of finding any relief from our active addiction. We had grown accustomed to failure, expecting it, accepting it, thinking it was just part of our makeup. When we stay clean, we begin to experience success in our lives. We begin to take pride in our accomplishments. We start to take healthy risks. We may take some knocks in the process, but even these can be counted as successes if

3:18we learn from them. Sometimes when we fulfill a goal, we hesitate to pat ourselves on the back, prefer that we'll seem arrogant, but our higher power wants us to succeed and wants us to share with our loved ones the pride we take in our accomplishments. When we share our successes with others in NA, they often begin to believe that they can achieve their goals as well. When we succeed, we help lay the groundwork for others who follow in our path. Just for today, I will take time to savor my successes. I will share my victories with an attitude of gratitude. Thanks for allowing me to be of service. All right, welcome back everyone. Smart Second, success. I'm hanging out with Lorenzo and Lorenzo. Can you let the folks know your clean date? Were you at 10 meetings? Give your home group a shout out. Lorenzo had it, my clean date is October 30th, 2024.

4:20Will you give my home group a shout out? My home group is dead or alive. Group of NA in the next two Kansas. You ready to jump into it? Let's do it, man. All right, success. It says any former success was frightening and unfamiliar. What do you think of the reader? Well, you know, success, that any former success was frightening, man. Success for me, man, was knowing that recovery was possible once coming to these meetings, man. But I didn't know how, but I knew I had to trust the process because when I played the take back, all right, coming to the different meetings, listening to other people share, bro. I just needed to stay a course. You know what I'm saying? And one thing I could do perfectly was stay clean, man. You know what I'm saying? Be teachable. You know what I mean? And today I get to, well, today I get to actually apply to a spiritual principle, man, that open mind and this, honesty and willingness, right? I get to actually do that and then, um, and apply, I can say, apply some more spiritual principles, consistency, man, the next right thing, like my sponsor tell me all the time

5:22about doing the right thing, right? Just doing that regardless. No matter what, right? You know, because we right where we supposed to be, and it took me a minute to understand that we're success, success is those small increments of doing the right thing, right? Give them myself, give them myself some, um, how do you even call it, give it, give it, give them myself, I guess some, some pro athletes or some, yeah, you know, I'm accomplished, man. You know? Bro, you know what I think that, that comes from for me too, because I'm, I'm the same man. Like, I didn't make out a 10th grade in active addiction and how, you know, I'm, I'm an educated man and, and, and, and all that stuff because of, of you, in a, in HP, there no doubt about it, dude, you know, like that, that, that, that, that's, that's very clear in my life. But bro, I, anytime, like, I would, I would, like, get a degree or, or even outside of like education, you know, like, get a, get a cool job or maybe your promotion or something like that. Bro, it, it's like I have to be intentional on feeling good about it.

6:26Yeah. You know what I'm talking about, man, like, it's still difficult for me to do that. Oh, yeah. Sometimes I'll be feeling like, uh, I'm not doing enough, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes it's like, I'll get out and like, like being a service, right, being a service and challenging myself to take on a task, right, in my home group, right, um, it's sometimes it takes others to tell me I did great and like, I'm like, man, I don't think I've done my first time sharing them on one year and, uh, and I went out of town and I shared them on one year down in Springfield, Illinois, amazing group, amazing, that they put that together. I'm really grateful for that, for that, for that family, that NA family I have down there. And, uh, and I was all in my head about, I should have did this, I should have said that my sponsor was like, man, you did just what you was supposed to, man, you showed up, right? You spoke, you shared just story, man, and we leave it at that, right? And then like, uh, I can say, just being, I'm forever grateful, man, that this program is here because, um, like you talked about employment, like, employment back in active addiction, man, um, there's a lot of things that I did that I felt like was success

7:27in active addiction, but today, like, the humbling, the humbling part for me, for the success that I have today, like, um, I don't, I don't think about, like, it comes to me that how I lost a lot of those things that I had gained, right, and today I don't have none of that stuff, but I'm at peace with what little did I do have because I worked hard for it, right? Yeah. Yeah. I know exactly what you're talking about, bro, anything got caught in my entire life, I'm talking about active addiction, remember, recovery, current seasons, uh, previous seasons, anything got caught on the cheek, I give a fuck less about it, dude. Yeah. I'm talking about anything, man, from, from, from, like, material things to women, it doesn't matter. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. If, if I don't, if I don't put the work in, I don't give a fuck about it, man. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's today like I, yo, I learned to like that frustration, man. You know, some of that sometimes that frustration is that's me growing, like I hear them talk

8:31about it and me as they talk about it, if you ain't, uh, if you're not, like, challenging yourself, if you're not, you know, uncomfortable, right, because that aren't being uncomfortable for me. Right. Getting through that. That's a success. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It makes me think about, like, do you, do you remember, like, the first couple of times where you were justified in telling someone to go fuck themselves and you didn't? Yeah. Bro, do you remember that? Dude, that's it. That's it. Awake it in my spirit, man. Mm-hmm. Well, I reflect on that, you know, and even now, even now, like if I'm halfway justified and, you know, and really, really like leaning into somebody and I don't, well, first I think, first I think a little self preservation, I'm too fucking old and too fat to be fighting

9:34around and doing shit. That's how I feel, okay? Yeah. But under that, under that is like, bro, that's kind of free today, but for the most part, I'm letting people be who they are. I'm trying to be, you know, I'm trying to be who I am. I tell you what, man, my sponsor has really been someone true tomorrow to helping me become the person that I am today, also like praying and meditating, right? But my sponsor being, being honest with me a lot, man, because I didn't think that I could have that. The relationship I have with the people, the members I have in Narcotics and I was in the people in my life. I'll say 99, I'm gonna say 95% of the people in my life today is in recovery, man, besides the guys that I work with sometimes and the people that you meet out and about, right? Yeah. And so like, I didn't think I was going to be able to do that, man. I first come into recovery, man, I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. I was like, man, these guys are the only guys I know, like these females and the only females I know that I could, and so I had to lay some ground rules. For myself, discipline myself, and that's my, that's my high priority, help me and

10:39guide me through this, because I was like changing those playmates, playgrounds and play things, man. I've been through the process of moving, changing, doing these, changing these geographical locations, right? You know, and all of these things, but today, like I was like, man, you know what, they success, to understand the success for me, and that was, you know, like I still get to be the guy I am today, man, I still get to laugh and be happy and joyous and free, right? And like, it's funny how the steps, man, how the steps are written, right? And like, how my high power has shown me, like today, the clarity I get from what I used to do, and in the process of how I've gotten here, it's like my higher power was putting all of that in front of me, and it was like before, before I feel like I, if, without, without North Cargdon, I'm as man, I don't know if I would have made a lot of decisions I made

11:42today by reaching out to them. No, we're, we're, we're, we're so self-centered on decisions, the, yeah, you're exactly right, man, like the, the, the only thing that I could really think about interacting with somebody is like, yo, what am I going to benefit from this interaction? Yeah. Yeah. And now, dude, and you're exactly right, man, when you, when you said, when you start out the episode talking about like being grateful, you know, for, for the, the little that we have, I was like, damn, that's exactly right, man, like if, if I can be content and not in the negative sense, not in like complacency or something, but I'm talking about like being, being truly grateful for my lot in life, you know, like, but like what I have right here, and, you know, and these moments I get to share, bro, that's, that's like where peace is really found. It is. It's really not about like, let me buy the next shiny thing or let me sleep with the next person or something like that. Mm-hmm. That stuff fills us up. I mean, quite frankly, sometimes not at all, but, but you know, what I'm talking about right now, bro.

12:42You get that. Yeah. Instantaneous, instantaneous relief or whatever it is, and then you look at you like, dude, what kind of pain am I going through? You know what? Maybe I get some awareness. I get some awareness, man, of why, why am I feeling this way about what I just done? And so that's those are the steps working in my life, right? Those are my high powers showing me that, hey, you know, I don't have to do that again. My sponsor. And those are successes, dude. When I make a decision to not, to, to, to not cause myself or other people some fucking damage or whatever it is, yeah, my homie said, bar said not to inflict myself. Yeah. Oh boy, somebody who's something, which is a cool way to look at it. And that's, that's the success, man. Yeah, it is. Yeah. So like I said, we, today I'm growing, man, and growing, growing is not continuing to do those things that was insane, man, over and over again and not learning from that, right? And so today, I get to at least, I get to, like, I've I've, I've earned that, I've earned, I've earned my seat in narcognomas. But also, I've, I've earned the trust with being able to, uh, to, to share these things

13:49with my sponsor and my sponsor, give it to me straight, right? And the people in my network give it to me and they still care about me, right? They don't want them from me. They just want me to not have to go through those same things that I was going through over and over before in my past. And I'm like, man, you know what? This bother me right here, man, he's like, you know what, it's good you said that, though, he was like, because I see the patterns, my sponsor talk about patterns, those things. And like today, today I just listen, man, you know what I'm saying? That disease has me thinking sometimes, oh, this ain't that, this ain't that. But what am I learning from what I've just went through, right? Let's find out some solutions. You know what I'm saying? You got to get sponsored, man. Yeah. Leaners. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Dude, my last question for you. So even though we know, we know like the best place for us to be is to be grateful for, you know, what we do have in our life right now, and that we really don't value a lot of things that we don't work for. Okay. So we know that. So we know that we've talked about that. Why are we, or I'll say me, but I'm pretty sure you probably the same.

14:52I think we're related somewhere along the lines, but I really do like we're not we're talking about. I think I think I think we're related. But why do we still want like a full paycheck at the end of a week without working the 40 hours? Like why is that still, you know, like a piece of it in here is still attractive, man, of like, of like, you know, let me get that paycheck, man, but I don't want to, but I'm not working. You know, you're talking about like, I still want that, I still want that to come easy. Yeah. And that it ain't shit, though. Like, no, and that's not what I, what I, what I really want, but I'm still attracted to it, though. You know, what's funny? You say that I, yo, I just, I just changed and, and companies, uh, employers and, um, the company I work for now, um, I prayed to get back into heavy equipment operating. And, uh, in construction, you have stints in that field where sometimes you'll be off for a week because of weather for weather permits, right?

15:53So the company on withers the small company so you don't get those extravagant vacation days. You don't get all these holiday pays, right? You can't call the unemployment office and unemployment office, send you a check for you being off because of the weather and so like, um, whenever they told me I was going to be off for a week, my boss told me that, that, that, that Monday, he was like, hey, man, I think we're going to go ahead and take off for that week. And like my brain was trying to, the disease, the disease was trying to get me to, um, think of other things that I could do. And not, not necessarily things, um, that would be legal, like going back to illegal stuff, right? But like, not being like, my bills was paid, right? I didn't need no money, but I was like, my brain had me thinking like, you know what I'm saying? Like, man, look at why, why did I make this, why, why did I make this decision to lead this company? And then I had to go back to the gratitude and then, uh, the gratitude man of, of, uh, what I do have, like, like I said, my bills was paid, I'm making those money.

16:56The work that I put in to get what I meant today, the pay the rent one, paying my rent that, right? I don't even have to pay a fucking light bill. No, I have to pay a gas bill on the water bill. All I pay is just rent, pay rent and lights. And that's it. And like, being able to be at home in this space, warm with a bed. So I had to start thinking about all those things. Like you said, man, why does, why did my brain go there? Right? Why did my brain go there? And I think the invitation for us to, the invitation is, is, is for us to, to, today to be like, okay, maybe I'm thinking some of this stuff, maybe I'm still attracted to some of this. I'm a whole ass human. That's fine. We focus on what I do have, just like you're talking about, I'm going to be grateful for, do I have a place to stay, do I have some food, do I have, you know, this, this and this. I'm not rattling off some of those things. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm pretty good. Oh, yeah, it'd be good. Oh, definitely. And then stick with the root things, right? Get all my roots. I'm like, well, see, I guess I, yeah, I can go over some stuff, work the day of the incident.

17:57I'm at the crib. And I'm saying, you know what, I come up with a sponsor here at work. I know he's going to answer the phone, I'm going to give him shit, you know what I'm saying? You know, I'm tapping into some of all the guys, man, you know, and that's a success for me the day because I have that and knowing that I have that, right, knowing that I have reached out and connected with others because narcotics anonymous, man, this, this program is a worldwide program. I've met people all over the country, man, you know, and so to get out of self, right, to get out of self, you know, is helping the others, right? And you never know what, and you never know who, who you can help by just reaching out calling them. You don't know, you never know, right? And then having sponsors now, and then calling me, and I thought that I, I remember it like, I remember it when I, when I got my year and I wasn't sponsoring anybody, and I remember my, in my disease or my brain was thinking like, damn, I was sitting in the mean, I was like, damn, you know, ain't nobody asked me to sponsor them, right? And then literally, I'm still doing those things and the guy I had met at a couple of other

19:02meetings, man, he came to my home group, but he was like, man, I've been wanting to get up with you, man. I want to see if he was sponsoring me, man, and I shared it with my sponsor. And he was like, I was like, make it think I should do it. He was like, yeah, go ahead, I was like, it's crazy because I was wondering why ain't nobody asked me to sponsor them, he was like, yeah, one time, yeah, he was like, it was right when it was supposed to. And now it is, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, thank you for spending your time with us today on the anonymous podcast. So whether you're enjoying listening quietly or, you know, maybe, maybe you're having this desire to participate, just know that you're welcome, 100% you're welcome here. This is a safe space because addicts show up, willing to share, serve, and looking for ways to focus on that magic six letter word, others. And until next time, I'm your host, Douglas L. Namaste, and God bless.