Just for Today in AA: The Card, the Slogan and What It Means
Just for Today is one of the most quoted phrases in recovery, and one of the most confused. In Alcoholics Anonymous it refers to a specific card of daily resolutions; in Narcotics Anonymous it is the name of a different book entirely. For help finding AA meetings near you, call (866) 920-0628.
Read more: Upon Awakening AA: The Power of Morning Reflections in Recovery
What Just for Today Means in AA
It is a short card, sometimes printed as a leaflet or a bookmark, holding a handful of resolutions that all begin the same way. Each one narrows a large and frightening commitment down to the next twenty-four hours: "Just for today I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle my whole life problem at once."
That is the whole mechanism. Not drinking for the rest of your life is a promise nobody can honestly make. Not drinking today is a decision anybody can make, and it can be made again tomorrow.
It Is Not the Narcotics Anonymous Book
Search the phrase and most of what comes back belongs to NA, whose daily meditation book is also called Just for Today. It has an entry for every day of the year and a website that publishes the current one.
The AA version is not a book and has no daily entries. It is one card, the same every day, meant to be carried and reread rather than worked through. Both are worth having; they are simply not the same thing.
Where the Just for Today Card Came From
The wording predates AA. It is usually traced to a short piece written in the nineteenth century by Sybil F. Partridge, which circulated widely before the fellowship adopted and adapted it.
AA service bodies still publish it as a free leaflet, which is the version to read if you want the text rather than someone's paraphrase of it.
What the Resolutions Actually Ask
They are deliberately small. Be happy. Adjust to what is rather than demanding the world adjust to you. Strengthen the mind by learning something. Do a good turn without being found out. Be agreeable. Have a programme for the day. Take a quiet half hour. Be unafraid.
None of that is dramatic, and that is the point. The card asks for a day of ordinary decency rather than a transformation, because a day of ordinary decency is achievable and a transformation is not.
Just for Today and One Day at a Time
The two phrases do the same work and members use them interchangeably. One day at a time is the slogan you will hear spoken in a room; Just for Today is the card that spells out what a day looks like.
People with decades of sobriety still talk in days. The unit does not get longer with time served.
How Meetings Use Just for Today
Some groups read the card aloud at the opening, the way others read the Daily Reflections entry, and then take it as the discussion topic. Others keep copies on the literature table for newcomers to take away.
It comes up most often in early sobriety, because it is the answer to the question newcomers actually ask, which is not how do I stay sober forever but how do I get through today.
Using It on Your Own
Most people who keep it read it once in the morning. A few carry the card and pull it out when the day turns difficult, which is closer to how it was intended to work.
If a resolution does not fit your day, members generally skip it rather than argue with it. The card is a set of suggestions, not a test to pass.
Finding a Meeting
A card is not the programme. What keeps people sober is other people, and the card is a thing to hold on to between meetings rather than a substitute for them.
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