There’s no question about it, those of us in recovery have no shortage of great one-liners and acronyms to pull form at a moment’s notice! One of our favorites is an acronym for GOD: Good Orderly Direction.

Good Orderly Direction means seeking guidance from others in a recovery program who can provide clearer, healthier direction than we can provide ourselves. It emphasizes trusting the wisdom and experience of those who have walked the path before us. By leaning on this external support, we can overcome our own flawed thinking and grow in recovery.

In this article, we’ll discuss the meaning of the oft-repeated phrase, “Good Orderly Direction” and discuss some practical ways to incorporate it into your daily life if you’re working through developing your concept of a higher power.

What is Good Orderly Direction?

In recovery, we’re often told to seek Good Orderly Direction from others, and told it’s a good substitute for the word “God” in the steps. But what exactly does this mean, and can it truly serve as a power greater than ourselves?

The truth is that nobody enters recovery on a “winning streak.” When we arrive in the rooms of AA (or our 12-step support group of choice), it’s usually because we’re out of ideas. In this way, the 12-steps are typically the last think we want to be doing, even if some of us can admit to ourselves that it will ultimately be a good thing.

Most of us have been trying to live according to our own whims, whether we thought we were being prudent or not. We struggled to take direction from anyone, preferring to try to figure everything out on our own. The trouble? Living that way is exactly how we landed in recovery in the first place!

So, for recovery to be successful, we’ve got to accept some basic truths:

“Can’t fix broken thinking with broken thinking”

The reality is that we can’t solve the problems we’ve created or change our lives if we continue to use the same flawed logic and unhealthy mindsets that created those problems in the first place.

If we are to have any kind of success in recovery, we’ve got to accept that going it on our own isn’t cutting it – we need external perspectives, new tools, and different ways of thinking than the ones we had when we were getting high or drinking.

Others see you better than you see yourself

It’s this “broken thinking” that leads us to have massive blind spots when it comes to the potholes we step in, time and time again. Our self-perception is clouded by biases, insecurities, subconscious habits that make it nearly impossible to see ourselves clearly.

People outside of our own minds can perceive our strengths, our weaknesses, and the relative health of our behaviors much more clearly than we can, because they are objective. If these folks are also in recovery, getting their opinions and (good orderly) direction is the path forward.

This principle holds true whether we’re in our first 30 days, or we’ve got a year sober or more. This is precisely where the topic of “Good Orderly Direction” comes into play:

Good Orderly Direction: Meaning

The real meaning of the phrase Good Orderly Direction is that it’s direction sought from an outside source – one that sees us clearly, cares for our health and wellbeing, and has specific experience sorting through the exact problems we’re working so hard to work through in our own lives.

G.O.D. and the Group of Drunks (or Group of Dopefiends!)

So who, exactly, should we seek this direction from? For many of us, it’s the very people we’ve surrounded ourselves with in the program – the “Group of Drunks” or the “Group of Dopefiends,” depending on your fellowship!

For many of us, this becomes “God as we understand Him,” and it carries us through those tough moments as we work to stay sober.

While we certainly wouldn’t suggest you indiscriminately take advice from every single person you meet in the rooms, we’re generally surrounded by a core of caring, thoughtful, and experienced people in recovery the instant we attend our first meeting.

As they get to know us, our 12-step sponsors and friends in recovery become the very people who know us best. These are the people who can reliably be turned to for Good Orderly Direction.

Developing a “Safety Net”

We often tell newcomers to surround themselves with folks in recovery whose messages and stories resonate with them, and who they truly believe have their best interest at heart (note, one of the primary benefits of substance abuse support groups is that they make this step really easy!). Oftentimes, these are the people who see us better than we see ourselves.

If we can deliberately develop connections with three to five peers in recovery (in addition to our sponsors), then we can almost always have someone to call, share ideas with, and use as a sounding board for our ideas and plans.

Remember: Don’t take temporary for permanent

We’ve written about it in our article on the top tips for surviving early recovery, but it bears repeating: we can’t take temporary for permanent when it comes to getting sober.

Many things are about to change over the course of the next few months and years. As we grow in our understanding, clean house, and begin to develop the kinds of lives we wanted to live all along, we’ll grow to a place where we don’t need to be so rigid about outsourcing our decision-making skills to others.

The first year of recovery is full of ups, downs, spiritual experiences, and portions that can seem to drag on forever!

Praying for Good Orderly Direction

The 12 step program allows us to choose a God as we understand Him – there’s no “dime behind the nickel,” so to speak, saying that we’ve got to transition from one concept of God to another. However, most of us find that our concept of a higher power grows and changes over time.

As we grow in our spiritual awakening over the long term, many of us pray for Good Orderly Direction from our higher power, just as if we were seeking direction and answers from our sponsors or safety net.

We all need Good Orderly Direction (regardless of your higher power!)

Whether you believe in a traditional higher power or not, seeking Good Orderly Direction from those around us is something we all need in recovery! Trusting the insights and guidance of those around us is a thread woven all through the recovery journey.

For us in recovery, this means listening to our sponsors, taking our peers’ observations and advice to heart, and simply applying the principles of the 12 step program to our lives wherever possible.

Good Orderly Direction doesn’t require religious faith, but it does require participation in the process. If there’s something on your mind that’s been eating you up in your sobriety, reach out to someone today. Nobody has all the answers, but you may be pleasantly surprised at the relief you feel upon being honest with another, receiving, and taking direction!

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