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The Program of ActionIf you now know that you are an Alco-

holic, or even find that you simply have “the desire to stop drinking,” you qualify as a member of AA.

But that is good news.

If you are an Alcoholic, you qualify for the Program of Recovery outlined in the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

You now qualify for the many promises in the Big Book, not just the Step Nine Prom-ises read in many meetings. There are prom-ises throughout the Big Book.

There is a reason for why you have had these problems and have had all the bad ex-periences related to drinking and your rela-tionships with other people.

There is a way to escape from the hope-lessness and despair of active Alcoholism.

There is a Solution. You have found Hope that the process of the Twelve Steps which has worked for us will work for you!

If your sponsor gives you different direc-tions, follow your sponsor’s direction!

The ActionsWe are told this is a “Program of Action”.

This is an attempt to break down the steps into the individual actions necessary to complete the steps. It is hoped this provides a checklist for sponsors to use working with a newcomer or a returnee.

AA began as part of the Oxford Groups1 in which a system of Four Absolutes, Five C’s and Six Steps led the original members of our fellowship to Sobriety2. This author’s personal favorite form is

• Get Honest With Yourself

• Get Honest with God

• Get Honest with Others

• Clean up your mess.

• Help others (without thought of reward)

• Continue to improve your Spiritual Life

The Twelve Steps were written to solidify the expression of what they did in those first groups to gain and maintain long term so-briety. If you have a problem with any indi-vidual step, look at the previous Steps.

We are told this is a “Program of Action”. The word action is referred to 17 times in the first 164 pages of the Big Book (Action, 9, 17, 42, 63, 72, 76, 80, 85, 87, 88, 93, 94, 98, 113, 140, 142, and 157). This is an attempt to break down the steps into the individual ac-tions necessary to complete the steps. It is hoped this provides a checklist for sponsors

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1 - See Appendix 1

to use working with a newcomer or a re-turnee.

Before the First Step1.! Step Zero: Recognize “This @#$ has got

to STOP!”After that realization few of us were

ready to take Step One. We fought the idea we were ‘alcoholic’. We insisted we could do it on our own. We demanded others give us ‘respect’ after years of abuse, damage and failure. We would not admit that our lives were unmanageable.

Alcohol may not be cunning, baffling and powerful, but alcohol-ism is! We fight. Peo-ple who think we have no will power have not seen our ability to carry out complex plans to get what we want. They have not seen the despair and suffering our pride forces us to hide.

In our pride of mind or of being ‘special’ we began the long treck from Step Zero to Step One. This is the path referred to in Chapter Five:

“Half measures availed us nothing.” (Page 59)

We turn to church or our religion to fix what we could not. We turn to doctors and pharmacists to stop our struggle with alco-hol. We live out the description of changes from Chapter Three:

“Drinking beer only, limiting the number of drinks, never drinking alone, never drinking in the morning, drinking only at home, never having it in the house, never drinking during business hours, drinking only at parties, switching from scotch to brandy, drinking only natural wines, agreeing to resign if ever drunk on the job, taking a trip, not taking a

trip, swearing off forever (with and without a solemn oath), taking more physical exercise, reading inspirational books, going to health farms and sanitariums, accepting voluntary commitment to asylums...” (Page 31)

We began a cycle of blame and regret that drove many of us to dream of an end - not active suicide, but the prayer that we would simply not wake up one morning. We blamed the people foolish enough to love us as if they should be punished. We blamed the economy, the stars, the government, the neighbors... anything but ourselves.

And even then we could not accept that it was not up to us, with our powers of mind, but that we were in the grip of the compulsion and obsession of what people called “a disease.”

Some of stayed away from a drink for a period of time - weeks or months or years - but we always found one day where we picked up again and back on the downhill slide that had made us hurt enough tot stop drinking without the actions to keep us so-ber.

Maybe be we even tried AA, but just as a place to go. We learned to parrot back the phrases, throw out the right page numbers, and to ‘look good’. But we didn’t take the actions to go through the Steps. Or we did the few Steps we thought made since but made ourselves exempt from the need to do those other Steps. We didn’t do an inventory, or convinced ourselves that we were al-lowed to leave some things off the inventory. We didn’t get or sponsor, or got one but did not listen to them. We did not do the things we were told to do to stay sober.

Some people are lucky. They arrive beaten down, with no idea of what “sobri-

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ety” would be like, but knowing they cannot stand to live the way they have lived during that last period of alcoholic misery. They ready to do anything to keep their life from staying the way it is.

They have, in some way, done the alco-holic prayer. In these words or words very similar to them, they have said “God, please help me. I can’t live like this.”

“Great suffering and great love are A.A.'s disciplinarians; we need no others.” (12&12, pg. 174)

They are ready to do “the Work” and be-gin the Program of Action, as outline in the Big Book. Everyone believes the way they were Sponsored through the Steps is right way to do the work. There are many ap-proaches to do the work and if we look for what has kept others sober with different views or histories, we begin “trudging the Road of Happy Destiny”. (Page 164)

First StepWe admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable.

2.! Accepted “We” - that “I” could not do this alone.

3.! We admitted we were powerless over alcohol when we put any in us.

4.! We admitted we were powerless over the effects alcohol had had upon us, even when we were not drinking.

5.! We admitted that our lives had become unmanageable.

You cannot proceed unless both of these are accepted as true in your life.

If you do not feel they are true, discuss with your sponsor why you think: you can do it alone with the evidence to support that that idea; why you are different; why you are not powerless over alcohol; how your life is manageable.

Have you tried the examples of control as shown in the middle of Page 31 of the Big Book?

Have you tried pure religion to solve you drinking problem?

Has the drinking problem come up more than once? More than ten times?

Do you still think some plan you have tried will be able to bring you to a healthy, happy life?

Can you pass the “20 Questions”3 or the “4 Questions”4? (See the end of the article).

Refer to “The Bedevilments” in the Big Book and their example of unmanageability:

“We were having trouble with per-sonal relation- ships, we couldn’t control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn’t make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn’t seem to be of real help to other people — was not a basic solution of these

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3 - See Appendix 2

4 - See Appendix 3

bedevilments more important than whether we should see newsreels of lunar flight? Of course it was.” (Page 52)

Do the “bedevilments” apply to you?

If you cannot define yourself as an alco-holic after honestly reviewing this material, perhaps you are not “our kind of alcoholic” as described on pages 44 and 45 in the Big Book, Do you think the instructions for con-trolled drinking at the bottom of Page 31 ap-ply to you? We saw and admitted that our best ability, best thinking and best action had resulted in us getting drunk and did damage in the lives of others.

However, if on serious and honest reflection on these propositions you feel you are “our kind of alcoholic” we invite you to proceed.

Second Step

“Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

The purpose of the Second Step is to offer hope where there was perviously no hope.

6.! We saw where we were playing “God” in our lives, passing judgements, mak-ing decisions and causing harm to our-selves and others – that we were not “God”.

7.! We came to believe, or became willing to believe, that a Power Greater than Our-selves, sometimes accepted as the Deity, or described in other ways by individual members,existed and we must use that power rather than our proven lack of power to stay sober and so change our lives.

8.! We admitted we were insane and hoped to be restored to sanity. If you feel you have never been anywhere near sanity, we believed this new reliance on a Higher Power could deliver us to sanity for the first time.

You cannot proceed unless all of the pre-vious actions have been done. This does not mean to mimic the actions of others, but you must concede to your innermost selves the basic truths of your drinking career.

Has your brain,willpower, or thinking, failed to get you/keep you sober?

Do you believe that a Power Greater than Yourself exists and can/will help you?

Remember, at this point you are simply removing yourself from the position of “god” in your life. You do not have to define your religion or path at this point, though many do. This step says that you come to believe that a power greater than yourself can restore you to sanity. It means exactly what it says, there is no secret code.

The most important thing to take away from this step is that a “Power Greater Then Yourself” is not YOU! The exact definition of “A Power Great Than Yourself” is personal and up to the sponsee to define. In addition to the recognized religions and a ‘Name of God’, man people report that they began AA with belief that AA itself would serve as their higher power to make a start. Some people say that GOD = Group of Drunks, or Good Orderly Direction. If a Sponsor can only work with someone in the same Relig-ious view as their own, they need to help the sponsee find someone with whom to deal with that aspect of their Twelve Step Recov-ery.

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Do not think the prayers in the Big Book are a magic chant that binds God to your will. After the Third Step prayer (page 63) the following paragraph says:

“The word- ing was, of course, quite optional so long as we expressed the idea, voicing it without reservation. ” (page 63

Later, in the Seventh Step Prayer, which come people consider to be the second lahf of the Third Step prayer, another prayer is given, but is preceded with a simple:

“When ready, we say something like this:” (Page 76)

Do you now believe, or are willing to be-lieve that this “Higher Power” can do for you what it has done for the people already in the fellowship?

Third Step

“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God “as we understood Him.”

9.! Embraced the thought that this “Power Greater than Ourselves”, as we under-stood it, could do what we needed, no matter how that source of power had been understood before by you.

10.! We adjusted our lives to look for what our immediate action should be and leave the care of the consequences to that Higher Power, however we understood that higher power to be.

Have You Done the First Three Steps?

You define yourself as an alcoholic in re-covery, that you are not in charge of circum-

stances, other people, or your own life, and are now will follow the direction provided to you through the book and through a spon-sor, and have put pen to paper to start on your Fourth Step.

To claim to have taken these three Steps and not take the actions of the other Steps will lead to a return to drinking and your continued damage to your own life and the lives of others.

Fourth Step

“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”

11.! Set aside time to write the inventory, using the example outlined on page 65 in the book “Alcoholics Anonymous” and/or whatever format has been pro-vided.

Follow the directions. Do Not use your word processor, Do Not attempt to record a verbal inventory. If there is a reason you cannot write, discuss alternatives with your sponsor, such as using a trusted scribe to as-sist with the written and oral parts of the In-ventory.

Writing seems to fulfill a function of separating the mechanical act of writing and the freedom to be honest about what you are putting down on paper.

Penmanship and spelling do not matter! Do not worry if you do not feel your handwrit-ing or spelling are ‘good enough’. You are not reading for public review and as long as you are able to read what you write to your sponsor ,or the trusted person to whom you will read your inventory, in Step Five. Fol-low the basic format given on page 65.

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If your prospect cannot read or write and you are reading this to him/her, you can ar-range for a trusted person to serve as “secre-tary” to write down the inventory and then read it to the Sponsor or trusted person. It is also possible fore the sponsor to work through the whole process doing columns. While not ideal it will fulfill the need of the inventory and revelation to the sponsor or trusted person - the sponsee still has to make the revelation to his/her Higher Power.

These are not essays.

You are told to cover resentments, fears, sex, and the harms you have done to others. The book does not say to separate them, but some people find it better to do them as separate lists.

We are also told to inventory our assets (in the contents listing for Step Four in the 12&12 and on pages 42, 46 on at the begin-ning of Step Ten on page 88 in the 12&12). This is also spelled out in the Big Book:

“This calm, yet realistic, stocktaking is im-mensely reassuring. The sponsor probably points out that the newcomer has some assets which can be noted along with his liabilities. This tends to clear away morbidity and en-courage balance. “ (Page 46)

Put pen to paper. Do it regularly in a committed schedule.

12.Use columns.

Work down the column, not across.

The first column is the Name, the second column is why they are listed that column “What”, and the third column will be what the person, place, think or incident raises in you. You can simply label that column “Ef-fected”. Use other titles if your sponsor gives you different direction.

13.! Write consistently on this inventory un-til it is either ‘done’ or needs to be shared with your sponsor or other trusted person, then resume writing to complete the inventory.

This may mean a given number of min-utes per day or per week, as you and your sponsor may agree is reasonable given your obligations of time to family, job or other commitments. Once you agree to this com-mitment to write, keep that commitment to yourself and to your sponsor.

You may need more than one phase to do your inventory, though some people have done a thorough inventory in a single pass. Some people refer to any additional inven-tory work part of Step Ten.

14.! Go down the column for Names.

Put people’s name, institutions, moral codes or other items that would come under your Continuing writing down the first col-umn until you cannot think of a new name to ad after 20 minutes of thinking.

15.! Start the What column, writing down what happened.

This should show why each name is on your list. Keep it short - the longest item in the second column in the instructions on page 65 is 19 words. When you try to over-explain you are trying to justify your part. We aren’t doing that yet.

If you think of a new name while writing the second column, add it to the end of your first column list, go back to where you stopped in the second column and continue writing down that column. When you have completed the lists of “why they are on my inventory”

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16.! Start the Effected column.

You may have more than one thing to write but each one should be kept to single words.

Some people begin with the Seven Deadly Sins, but that is not a requirement. Lust, Greed, Envy, and Anger, but over-drinking can come under Gluttony, Fear can take many forms (fear of judgement, fear of discovery, fear of responsibility or even fear of success) and is usually the most dominant of the reasons for our responses. To this list of effects we can add Sex, Security, Position, Reputation.

Be honest with the Effected item in rela-tion to whatever is in Column Two, regard-less of who it is in Column One. Are you an-gry at a specific person who did the action, or is it the action itself that is the source of listing in your inventory?

For Example: did you object to a person robbing you or are you angry at being robbed?

17. ! Review what you write to see if you were telling the truth.

“Moral” is not about maintaining the tenants of a religion, but by living within the definition of how you think you Higher power wants you to be.

Are you telling the truth about the sub-ject of this entry throughout your Inventory?

Fifth Step

Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact na-ture of our wrongs.

18.! Set up a day and time with the person who will listen to your inventory.

19.! Admitted to God the exact nature of your wrongs in the making of this list.

20.! Admitted to your sponsor or another trusted person the exact nature of your wrongs in this list.

The “Fourth” column, not shown in the Big Book but adopted over the years by many sponsors, is usually “What Is Your Part” in these wrongs.

Did you do something you were not supposed to do?

Did you not do what you were supposed to do?

Do you keep the injury fresh in your mind by rehashing it and waste time in the here and now, dreaming of how they should correct it for you or how you wish it had been instead of accepting the fact of how it was?

The wishing how it could have been or how it should be changed is actually you de-ciding that you know better than whatever God you understand how it should have been. This is you playing God - review your Second and Third Step when these crop up. You have accepted whatever form of a High Power you have come to believe and no longer have the right or authority to decide how it should have been.

Have you seen that the only thing all of this has in common is that you were part of the picture when these items made their way onto yours list?

If your problems continue to be the fault and responsibility of other people, there is nothing AA can do for you. We can only help you change your behavior, your reactions and your way of living.

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Other people can be wrong, too, but we are doing this inventory to see our own way of living and the places where we need to change behavior, grow up, and break free of the bondage the clinging to the past has caused.

“Forgiveness” does not mean you are approving of anyone else’s actions, princi-ples, or authority. Forgiveness actually means that you are turning the matter over to the Higher Power of your own under-standing and freeing yourself from the re-thinking the incident, re-judging the conse-quence, re-feeling the emotions and allowing so much of your time and mind power drained by the whole episode.

“Forgiveness” is really about freeing yourself to use your newly re-sized value and ability to work on your new, sober life–freeing yourself from the burden of regret, anger, shame and guilt of the past.

In the “Lord’s Prayer”, sometimes used by meetings to close the session, has a line that is most often translated as something like “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” The word “as” is often taken to mean “at the same time” but in the original text the word is intended to represent “to the same measure” – “Forgive me to the same measure I am able to forgive.”

Sixth Step

Were entirely ready to have God re-move all these defects of character.

21.! The Sixth and Sevenths Steps only get one paragraph each in the Big Book, but are major in the quest for Recovery. There are many elements of Step Six, which we phrase as:

22.! Became willing to give up all the bene-fits I receive by clinging to my defects.

This can mean getting other people to do something for you, forgive you for some-thing, or otherwise benefit you because you have convinced them that you are just too pitiful to be expected to ever do anything differently.

Are you willing give up getting debts forgiven because you have proven too diffi-cult to collect from?

Are you willing to give up getting out of responsibility for doing things, paying for things, meeting commitments because you are “special” and should not be held to the same standard?

Are you willing to give up these defects without knowing how to replace those be-haviors - yet?

Are you willing to give up your defects even if it means you will be uncomfortable?

Are you willing to surrender inappropri-ate sex if you are willing to give up your Lust?

Are you willing to give up your extra money if you give up Greed?

Are you willing to give up the excesses if you give up greed, gluttony and envy?

Are you willing to ask to have these de-fects removed without demand for their re-placements?

Remember that all of this is just being willing - willing to give up the benefits, the crutches, the escape from normal human re-sponsibilities. Are you willing, even if you do not know exactly what your personal Higher Power will provide to replace what is taken?

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This does not mean that you will auto-matically have all your defects removed – it is by dealing with the defects and their con-sequences that contain many of the lessons we need to learn.

It is the next part that gets tricky.

Seventh Step

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Do you have any idea of what Humble means? Look it up.

For some, “Humble” means being “Right Sized”. For others it means to give up being “Special” and realizing the same rule ap-plies, the same consequence applies and the same responsibility applies to you as it does to anyone else.

It can mean to give up trying to make anyone believe you are bigger than you are with bravado and pride and showmanship?

It means not trying to avoid visibility by being tiny, unworthy or too insignificant to succeed?

It means being willing to accept the con-sequences of your action regardless of the cost in money, pride, reputation or relation-ships.

And notice the that the wording does not say that you hand your Higher Power a list of what you have decided your defects are and ask that only those be touched. You may have a shortcoming that you have convinced yourself is an asset, but which needs to be removed because it interferes with your abil-ity to perform useful service in the world.

Are you really willing to turn over your defects removed, your life redirected, sur-

render your goals and your judgements to the complete care of the Higher Power you claimed to believe in in the Second Step, or turned your life over to in the Third Step? Then do it.

For our purposes the Seventh Step be-comes: “Asked to have anything that inter-feres with my usefulness to my Higher Power or my service to others through my Higher Power, removed.”

23.! Actively asked my Higher Power to take me and remove everything that gets in the way of my usefulness to others.

24.! Accepted what replaces my defects and shortcomings without judgement based on my old beliefs and positions.

Are you willing to live on the new basis of right-sized living outlined in the process in the Steps?

Eighth Step

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

In this Step we are only making a list. Most of our list has already shown up in the writing of our Fourth Step. Mine your Fourth Step to begin your Eighth Step list.

Most people find new people, concepts or institutions to add to their Eighth Step - doing Steps Four, Five, Six and Seven give us a clearer vision on who we are and where our actions have created a new need to make things right in our lives.

Understand that “amend” means to re-pair or make better. It does not mean to say you’re sorry. Talk is cheap and you have said

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too many things to too many people that you did not mean, or outright lied.

We know that people are not always will-ing to do all the Amends they feel they owe, usually because of the resentments we still feel are justified or righteous. For this step you simply review your Inventory, create the amends list, and look at the individual cases to see if you are really willing to repair the damage you have done.

You began this list in your Inventory, so your Amends List becomes:

25.! Reviewed my inventory to identify the people, institutions or groups against whom I had done wrong and identified those wrongs.

26.! Added names of people, institutions or groups that have come to mind since do-ing my Inventory to my Amends List.

27.! Identified the problems within myself that would prevent me from making amends to them all.

28.! Identified the amends I am willing to make immediately and discuss them with my sponsor.

29.! Identify the amends I believe I would not be willing to make immediately, but believe I will willing to make after a while.

30.! Identify the amends I do not think I will ever be willing to make and agree to work with my sponsor to review my progress.

While not everyone believes the wording of the Lord’s Prayer, said at the end of many meetings, there is a concept shared with many faiths that may be worth mentioning.

The phrase “forgive me my debts as I forgive my debtors”, the word “as” is taken to mean “at the same time,” but in the original lan-guage of the prayer (Aramaic) the word means “to the same measure.”

We are free of our pasts only as far as we are willing to free others of our bad actions, bad words, bad debts or past judgements.

We may not be willing to right all wrongs when we begin, but as we continue in the process we find that actually want to make the amends we were previously reluctant to correct.

We may not be able to make a direct amends to everyone or everything we have done harm, but we must be willing to fulfill the spirit of amends - to repair or make bet-ter. There are many places where we will make an indirect amends, such as changing how we deal with the world in honor of making myself or something outside better.

There are places where my amends can-not be made directly because the person to whom amends is owed has passed away, or someone forgave the debt (even if they for-give, which is about their kindness or com-passion, you have benefited from stolen money and must balance the debt for your-self).

The book does not say we must make in-direct amends, but those of us who tried to escape our proper responsibility found we could not stay sober without finding a way to make those amends as well.

Ninth Step

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

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It is possibly the most easily understood of the Steps. But for the action of this step we must look at the last part first.

You must always be sure that the per-formance of your amends does not do new damage.

You may not avoid an amends by claim-ing you are an “other.” Most people think making amends to themselves involves some new toy or avoidance. Your amends to yourself is your whole Recovery. Remember that on Page 74 we are told “The rule is we must be hard on ourself, but always considerate of others.”

31.! Reviewed my amends with my sponsor to be sure that my attempts to correct past action does not create new harm to the person to whom I am attempting to make amends or some other party.

32.! Made direct amends to the people, insti-tutions or groups in my first list of Amends as quickly as possible.

33.! Made direct amends to those on my re-luctant amends, despite my old feelings of justification or righteousness.

34.! Reviewed my lists with my sponsor and moved my reluctant amends to immedi-ate amends and my withheld amends to a higher position as my amends pro-gress.

35.! Continued to make amends as the oppor-tunity and willingness allow.

36.! Made direct amends to the people, insti-tutions or groups in my first list of Amends as quickly as possible.

37.! Made direct amends to those on my re-luctant amends, despite my old feelings of justification or righteousness.

38.! Made indirect amends as my sponsor and I agree would be proper to clear away the wrong I have created.

39.! Reviewed my lists with my sponsor and moved my reluctant amends to immedi-ate amends and my withheld amends to a higher position as my amends pro-gress.

While you may remain reluctant to make certain amends, know that your progress is only slowed by refusal to progress with a change in your attitudes and actions.

Tenth Step

Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

This is the beginning of our new life in daily living through Steps Ten, Eleven and Twelve.

On page 86 we are given simple direc-tions for “When we retire at night” and “On Awakening...” for our daily review.

While some people teach Step Ten means only a review the end of the day or periodic review, the Book actually tells us that it is to monitor our ongoing behavior, review it as we go through our day, to make corrects as quickly as possible.

The revised actions would be:

40.! Continued to review my behaviors and attitude through the tools of Admission, Submission, Inventory, Amends and

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Service as expressed through my new Life.

41.! Make changes my behaviors, attitudes and actions as needed

42.! Make new amends as soon as possible or as soon as they are recognized.

43.! Commit to set aside times to periodically review my inventory process to see what new problems have revealed themselves and make such corrections as required for the maintenance of my Recovery.

44.! Continue to do the actions of the previ-ous Steps, as needed, to guide, adjust or repair my current behavior and atti-tudes.

Eleventh Step

Sought through prayer and medita-tion 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 it out.

Recovery is not difficult to live provided you maintain an ongoing willingness to sur-render your actions, behavior and direction to the Higher Power you claimed in the Sec-ond Step and made and initial surrender in the Third Step.

45.! Continued to pray for God’s Will and the power to carry it out.

Prayer is a separate action and is usually defined as you speaking to the Higher Power of your own understanding. We are told specifically what to pray for, not to make up a list for God or Santa to fulfill.

You can ask for suggestions on how to pray, but you must decide. You do not need a special posture, a special place, special mu-sic, incense, fuzzy blanket or anything exter-nal to pray.

If you have a Higher Power that already knows everything and is control of every-thing, prayer can be seen as your chance to get honest with your personal Power Greater Than Yourself.

Talk to the God of your understanding and ask for:

• God’s will.• Power to carry it out.Period.

The rest of your life will come from those two sources, if you make the effort.

46.! Continued to meditate to find God’s Will in my life.

If praying is you talking to your Higher Power, meditation is listening. You answers will usually come through other people. This does not always mean within your fellow-ship, but it more of a guidance to keep our-self open to answers. Even if the old answer was good, your God may have a better, deeper answer, to offer you.

Meditation can be a formal session within a specific belief or practice, or it can be as simple as securing some “quiet time” for yourself

47.! Maintained my willingness to change according to the reality in with I live, as guided by my Higher Power and those who share the search for that Higher Power’s will.

Twelfth Step- 12 -

Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The Twelfth Step tells us that when we begin living the new way, having cleaned away most of the wreckage of the past, avoiding wreckage of the present and creat-ing wreckage in the future.

We have seen in our old life that when we put our hands, our will and our ego into the picture, it usually goes bad.

Those of us who have been in Recovery for a while find that we are all mirrors. We can mirror to the newcomer how he or she is doing and help them clean their own mirror.

We see ourselves in their mirror and our con-tinued growth and well being is dependent on our close association with the endless stream of newcomers who com to AA for help in hopeless situation.

So we add:

48.! Commit to share what I have received with others.

49.! I will do Service, in and out of my meet-ings, to make the open hand of AA available to all who wish to accept it.

50.! Will leave judgement to my Higher Power, however that is defined

51.! Will depend upon the guidance of the tools and principles provided to me as guides for all areas of my life.

We have seen people come into AA and do exactly what they were told, but only as if they were lawyers able to fulfill the exact let-ter of the direction, but without the internal

changes necessary for the change required to leave the bondage of Alcoholism and the life required to live within that disorder.

In AA we have been given powerful promises based on a simple deal. If anyone wants to give up the old life and build a new one based on principles when had never successfully applied to daily living.

It requires a decision to change the life we admit we have lead (Steps One, Two and Three), the actions of cleaning up our mess (Steps Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight and Nine), and the effort to keep ourselves within that design for living (Steps Ten, Eleven and Twelve).

It is simple, but it is not easy. It requires action, commitment and willingness.

But the rewards are greater than we could have imagine when we arrived.

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APPENDIX 1

The Oxford Group The Oxford Group was an early 20th

Century Christian fellowship that was offi-cially named “The First Century Christian Fellowship.” The name ‘Oxford Group’ was a quick reference made to help a reporter find the group when it was visiting South Africa.

The Oxford Group was founded by Frank Buchman who became popular with world leaders, but who later made com-ments about Hitler that caused some people to claim he was a Fascist supporter. What he actually said was that if he were able to con-vert Hitler to Oxford group principles, he would be in a position to do great good.

Because of the row created by Bachman’s audience the the Chancellor, Oxford Univer-sity demanded the name Oxford Group be eliminated from the the group’s activities. In 1939 they changed their name to Moral Re-armament, and later to Initiative of Change (still alive through http://iofc.org).

The Three PracticesMembers of the Oxford Group had several

daily practices that they used to maintain their focus and their growth.

• Quiet Time – a period of quiet prayer, reflection, and meditation, usually every morning and as part of a group. Quiet time started each Oxford group meeting and many early AA meetings.

• Guidance – the process of praying, meditating, and could lead to you could feel was “Guidance” or direc-

tion for your actions, or the answer to your prayers.

• Checking – If you prayed and medi-tated, feel you had received direct Guidance on your problem, you checked your Guidance with other people, lest your ego deceive you into inappropriate action.

AA has continued stressing the practices of daily quiet time for prayer and meditation, but successful members also report some sort of Checking also be used, either through meetings or one-on-one discussion with a sponsor or other members.

The Four AbsolutesThe Oxford Group taught a focus on a

personal relationship to God through an ef-fort to achieve Four Absolutes.

• Absolute Purity• Absolute Honesty• Absolute Unselfishness• Absolute Love

While perfection was not likely, the need to struggle in that direction was still neces-sary.

The Five CsThe Oxford Groups also taught “Five Cs” to

illustrate their program of spiritual growth.

• Confidence

• Confession

• Conviction

• Conversion

• Continuance

The Six Steps

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The Oxford Groups used a Six Step sys-tem, but it was not codified. Different people have described it in different ways. This is what Bill Wilson wrote down in 1953:

If you have trouble reading Bill’s writing, it says:

For Ed - 1. Admitted Hopeless2. Got Honest with self3. Got Honest with another4. Made Amends5. Helped others without demand6. Prayed to god as you understood

Him. April 1953

Ever, Bill W.Original AA Steps.

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APPENDIX 2

The 20 QuestionsThe 20 Questions were developed by Johns Hop-

kins Medical Center in Maryland and are still used by many hospitals and clinics while doing intake for a suspected alcoholic drink.

Take this 20 question test to help you decide whether or not you are an alcoholic. Answer YES or NO to the following questions:1.Do you lose time from work due to drinking? 2.Is drinking making your home life unhappy? 3.Do you drink because you are shy with other people?4.Is your drinking affecting your reputation? 5.Have you ever felt remorse after drinking?6.Have you ever got into financial difficulties as a result of

drinking?7.Do you turn to lower companions and an inferior envi-

ronment when drinking?8.Does your drinking make you careless of your family’s

welfare?9.Has your ambition decreased since drinking?10.Do you crave a drink at a definite time?11.Do you want a drink the next morning?12.Does drinking cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?13.Has your efficiency decreased since drinking?

14.Is drinking jeopardizing your job or business?15.Do you drink to escape from worries or trouble?16.Do you drink alone?17.Have you ever had a complete loss of memory as a result

of drinking?18.Has your physician ever treated you for drinking?19.Do you drink to build up your self-confidence?20.Have you ever been to a hospital or institution because

of drinking?

What's your score?If you have answered YES to any one of the ques-

tions, there is a definite warning that you may be an alcoholic.

If you have answered YES to any two, the chances are that you are an alcoholic.

If you answered YES to three or more, you are definitely an alcoholic.

The test questions are used at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore, MD, in deciding whether or not a patient is an alcoholic). Only you can decide whether or not you are an alcoholic, although some professionals may offer very strong opinions on the subject.

APPENDIX 3

The Four QuestionsThere are four questions for you to an-

swer to determine if you are an Alcoholic:

• When you take a drink, can you control how many drinks you will have?

• When you take a drink, can you control how long the spree will last?

• When you take a drink, can you control what you will do while drunk?

• Has the question of whether or not you are an alcoholic come up more than once?

For most alcoholics the answer to the first three questions will be “no,” and the answer to the fourth question will be “yes.”

Did you know that these considerations do not come into play with non-alcoholics?

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Actions ReferenceBefore the First Step1.! Step Zero: Recognize “This @#$

has got to STOP!”

First Step2.! Accepted “We” - that “I” could

not do this alone.3.! We admitted we were powerless

over alcohol when we put any in us.

4.! We admitted we were powerless over the effects alcohol had had upon us, even when we were not drinking.

5.! We admitted that our lives had become unmanageable.

Second Step6.! We saw where we were playing

“God” in our lives, passing judgements, making decisions and causing harm to ourselves and others – that we were not “God”.

7.! We came to believe, or became willing to believe, that a Power Greater than Ourselves, some-times accepted as the Deity, or described in other ways by indi-vidual members,existed and we must use that power rather than our proven lack of power to stay sober and so change our lives.

8.! We admitted we were insane and hoped to be restored to sanity. If you feel you have never been anywhere near sanity, we believed this new reliance on a Higher Power could deliver us to sanity for the first time.

Third Step9.! Embraced the thought that this

“Power Greater than Ourselves”, as we understood it, could do what we needed, no matter how that source of power had been understood before by you.

10.! We adjusted our lives to look for what our immediate action should be and leave the care of the conse-quences to that Higher Power, however we understood that higher power to be.

Have You Done the First Three Steps?

Fourth Step11.! Set aside time to write the inven-

tory, using the example outlined on page 65 in the book “Alcohol-ics Anonymous” and/or whatever format has been provided.

12.Use columns. 13.! Write consistently on this inven-

tory until it is either ‘done’ or needs to be shared with your sponsor or other trusted person, then resume writing to complete the inventory.

14.! Go down the column for Names. 15.! Start the What column, writing

down what happened.

16.! Start the Effected column. 17. !Review what you write to see if

you were telling the truth.

Fifth Step18.! Set up a day and time with the

person who will listen to your inventory.

19.! Admitted to God the exact nature of your wrongs in the making of this list.

20.! Admitted to your sponsor or an-other trusted person the exact nature of your wrongs in this list.

Sixth Step21.! The Sixth and Sevenths Steps

only get one paragraph each in the Big Book, but are major in the quest for Recovery. There are many elements of Step Six, which we phrase as:

22.! Became willing to give up all the benefits I receive by clinging to my defects.

Seventh Step 23.! Actively asked my Higher Power

to take me and remove everything that gets in the way of my useful-ness to others.

24.! Accepted what replaces my defects and shortcomings without judgement based on my old beliefs and positions.

Eighth Step25.! Reviewed my inventory to iden-

tify the people, institutions or groups against whom I had done wrong and identified those wrongs.

26.! Added names of people, institu-tions or groups that have come to mind since doing my Inventory to my Amends List.

27.! Identified the problems within myself that would prevent me from making amends to them all.

28.! Identified the amends I am willing to make immediately and discuss them with my sponsor.

29.! Identify the amends I believe I would not be willing to make im-mediately, but believe I will will-ing to make after a while.

30.! Identify the amends I do not think I will ever be willing to make and agree to work with my sponsor to review my progress.

Ninth Step31.! Reviewed my amends with my

sponsor to be sure that my at-tempts to correct past action does not create new harm to the person to whom I am attempting to make amends or some other party.

32.! Made direct amends to the people, institutions or groups in my first list of Amends as quickly as pos-sible.

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33.! Made direct amends to those on my reluctant amends, despite my old feelings of justification or righteousness.

34.! Reviewed my lists with my spon-sor and moved my reluctant amends to immediate amends and my withheld amends to a higher position as my amends progress.

35.! Continued to make amends as the opportunity and willingness al-low.

36.! Made direct amends to the people, institutions or groups in my first list of Amends as quickly as pos-sible.

37.! Made direct amends to those on my reluctant amends, despite my old feelings of justification or righteousness.

38.! Made indirect amends as my sponsor and I agree would be proper to clear away the wrong I have created.

39.! Reviewed my lists with my spon-sor and moved my reluctant

amends to immediate amends and my withheld amends to a higher position as my amends progress.

Tenth Step40.! Continued to review my behaviors

and attitude through the tools of Admission, Submission, Inven-tory, Amends and Service as ex-pressed through my new Life.

41.! Make changes my behaviors, atti-tudes and actions as needed

42.! Make new amends as soon as pos-sible or as soon as they are recog-nized.

43.! Commit to set aside times to peri-odically review my inventory process to see what new problems have revealed themselves and make such corrections as required for the maintenance of my Recov-ery.

44.! Continue to do the actions of the previous Steps, as needed, to guide, adjust or repair my current behavior and attitudes.

Eleventh Step45.! Continued to pray for God’s Will

and the power to carry it out.46.! Continued to meditate to find

God’s Will in my life.

47.! Maintained my willingness to change according to the reality in with I live, as guided by my Higher Power and those who share the search for that Higher Power’s will.

Twelfth Step48.! Commit to share what I have re-

ceived with others.

49.! I will do Service, in and out of my meetings, to make the open hand of AA available to all who wish to accept it.

50.! Will leave judgement to my Higher Power, however that is defined

51.! Will depend upon the guidance of the tools and principles provided to me as guides for all areas of my life.

From the Oxford Group

3 Practices4 Absolutes

5 C’s6 Steps

Website:http://sponsormagazine.org

Actions in Each Step

.........................Step Zero ! 1..........................Step One ! 4...........................Step Two! 2.........................Step Four ! 9...........................Step Five ! 3

............................Step Six ! 2.......................Step Seven ! 2........................Step Eight ! 6.........................Step Nine ! 9

...........................Step Ten ! 5......................Step Eleven ! 3......................Step Twelve ! 4

1, 2, 3 = 7 Actions4, 5, 6, 7 - 16 Actions

8, 9 = 15 Actions10, 11, 12 = 12 Actions

When stuck on a Step, go to the earlier Steps.

When stuck on the right action, go to the earlier Actions.

Contact:sponsormagazine@gmail.com

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