Honesty and the 1st Step
Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable. The original 1st Step, as published in 1939 in the book Alcoholics Anonymous, reads: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-and that our lives had become unmanageable.” In the years since, numerous words have been substituted for “alcohol” by individuals and other groups...
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Spirituality and the 11th Step
Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. “God enters by a private door into each individual.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson In the chapter on the 11th Step in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, AA’s guidebook to the Steps, Bill W. writes: There...
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Self Discipline and the 10th Step
Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” ~Aristotle Once we have completed the thorough spiritual housecleaning process of Steps 4 through 9, and have freed ourselves from the painful legacy of guilt and shame, we cannot rest on our laurels. Continuing the process...
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Responsibility and the 9th Step
Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. “Let everyone sweep in front of his own door and the whole world will be clean.” ~Goethe In the 6th Step we committed ourselves to taking responsibility for our behavior. Now it’s time for us to act on that commitment by admitting our wrongs, repaying our debts, repairing...
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Forgiveness and the 8th Step
Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” ~Lewis B. Smedes At first glance, the 8th Step may seem easy. Per the guidance in the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, we made the list in Step 4. But how complete it is will depend on the thoroughness of our...
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Humility and the 7th Step
Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. Many in recovery regard the 6th and 7th Steps as evidence of the program’s divine inspiration, for when the book Alcoholics Anonymous was written only two short paragraphs were devoted to these Steps. None of the contributors had been sober more than a couple of years at the time. They lacked the experience to appreciate the...
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Willingness and the 6th Step
Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. “If faith without works is dead, willingness without action is fantasy.” ~Anonymous In Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, the guidebook written by one of AA’s founders, the chapter on Step 6 begins: ‘This is the step that separates the men from the boys….’ So declares a well-loved clergyman...
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Integrity and the 5th Step
Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Many newcomers to the Steps feel dismayed when they first see this Step. It’s bad enough, they think, that the 4th Step requires them to beat themselves up for all the bad things they’ve done . . . but now the 5th Step says they must shame themselves before someone else so he can beat them up,...
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Courage and the 4th Step
Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. “How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them” ~Benjamin Franklin The 4th Step is about many things: It’s about becoming completely honest with ourselves regarding our own attitudes and behavior, past and present. It’s about accepting full responsibility for...
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Faith and the 3rd Step
Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Step 3 is where we plant our hope for recovery in the fertile soil of faith. We commit ourselves to the weeding and watering necessary for it to take root and grow in faith that’s built on practical experience. As long as we keep nurturing it with an open mind, we can be sure that it...
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Hope and the 2nd Step
Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. AA’s 12 Steps are proven guidelines for life that have enabled millions of once hopeless souls to recover lives that seemed lost. But few of these lost souls reach the program under their own steam. Most come grudgingly under pressure from family, employers, or the courts, and most arrive with little or...
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Gratitude and the 12th Step
Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to [other sufferers], and to practice these principles in all our affairs. By the time we have thoroughly worked the previous eleven steps, most of us will have experienced the spiritual awakening (or “psychological transformation”) necessary to free ourselves from the destructive...
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