People in Program tend not to be very good at lifetime habits. It's hard enough to keep coming to meetings, we think, without cultivating practices like prayer and meditation as matters of routine. Most of us gave a great sigh of relief when we first came into recovery and discovered that it was just "a day at a time." Good, we thought -- no need for commitment here.

But the "day at a time" idea is not a substitute for commitment. It's a means of fulfilling it. It simply says that, on those days when we don't feel like doing something to which we've committed, we'll do it anyway "just for today." Any sane reading of the AA Big Book makes it clear that the writers are not talking about stopping drinking "just for today" but for ever. The question then is how we do that, and the answer is, "a day at a time."

In its introduction to Step 10, the Big Book makes it clear that this applies also to the practice of the last three Steps. Developing our spiritual selves is, it says, "not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime."

It follows that any tendency on our part to ease up on the practice of Steps 10, 11 and 12 is a problem of the deepest seriousness. This is the point at which our fearful ego will do everything it can to stop us, for the practice of these Steps means progressive death to the ego. Consequently, our practice should be characterized by a tendency to increase its role in our lives rather than the reverse. If we meditate for fifteen minutes each day, we should be considering twenty or thirty. If we pray in the morning and evening, we should look to do so during the day as well. If we have made a commitment to others who are at this stage of recovery, we should be constant to that commitment.

What we have found in the last three Steps is both precious and rare. We can never afford to forget that our ego wants to take it away from us, and that it will try to do so not by a sudden attack but by that day-to-day complacency which leads to "slip-sliding away."