Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program. They are usually people who cannot be honest with themselves. They can´t help it; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from severe emotional and mental disorders, but many folks with such conditions do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it—then you are ready to take certain steps.
At some of these we hesitated. We thought we could find an easier, softer way, but we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us tried to hold on to our old ideas, but there was no result until we let go absolutely.
Remember that we deal with alcohol—cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But, the 12 steps will result in a spiritual awakening if they are followed. They are suggested to use as a program of recovery.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol— that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to this process.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to stop acting from our defects of character.
7. Used this 12 step process to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Tried to improve our personal awareness with meditation in order to understand the next right thing, and to tap the power to do the next right thing.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.’’ Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
In the book Alcoholics Anonymous with our description of the alcoholic, and our personal adventures before and after recovery it makes clear three pertinent ideas:
(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
(c) That this 12 step process leading to a spiritual awakening could relieve our alcoholism.