Shifting the Emphasis

IF THERE IS any one secret of longevity in AA, it is to be found in the refinement of time that we call our twenty-four-hour program. In the beginning, twenty-four hours was much too long for me to stay away from one drink. Older, wiser AAs told me of an even further refinement of time. They suggested that if twenty-four hours was too long, I could do it for twelve hours, six hours, five minutes--but start it right now! Those suggestions paid off, and "just for today" finally became the most useful of the AA sayings for me.