The following are the original twelve steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
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.
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.
LUKE: The first step is a hard step for me to take because I think of myself as smart, disciplined and ethical. So how could I have compulsions stronger than me?
So the first time I took this step was in 2011 when I decided to see what I could learn from a 12-step program related to dating. And when I finally began working the steps seriously a year later, I decided I would accept and move through the first step just to find out the experience that awaited me as I worked further steps.
I’m listening to a great HerbK workshop online, where he says: “To come to the conclusion that I cannot help myself. On my own power, I am doomed. I must submit to a process that will lead me to a power other than myself.”
OK, that’s a challenge. Let’s take this journey again.
“This isn’t self-help. This is exploration of a process that reveals how helpless we really are.”
“Bill Wilson said you are either going for alcohol or you’re going for God. There’s no resting place.”
