Steps
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Wellington, NZ
Posts: 250
Steps
Hi there,
For a long time I've been really stand-offish with AA. I've been sober for a bit over three months now. I've been going to meetings, which has been really good but it's only over the last few days that I've decided to commit to the steps.
This came about from a meeting I went to Sunday which focuses on one step each week- that meeting was focused on Step 1. Kindof a hint, maybe :=]
I connected with the dude (whose name I have cleverly forgotten!) who was leading the meeting and afterwards he agreed to take me through the steps. Not exactly a sponsor, but something along those lines. I gave him my number and he agreed to give me a bell yesterday, which he didn't. Silly bugger :=]
Anyhoo, I'm really committed to walking through the steps and also keeping it in sync with the progression of these meetings. One step a week might seem a bit fast, but apparently that's what this guy is into.
I really wanna to start work on step one, so I can have something completed by next Sunday. I just haven't got the vaguest notion what I should be doing. I know I should be writing something, but what exactly. I'd really appreciate some help :=]
For a long time I've been really stand-offish with AA. I've been sober for a bit over three months now. I've been going to meetings, which has been really good but it's only over the last few days that I've decided to commit to the steps.
This came about from a meeting I went to Sunday which focuses on one step each week- that meeting was focused on Step 1. Kindof a hint, maybe :=]
I connected with the dude (whose name I have cleverly forgotten!) who was leading the meeting and afterwards he agreed to take me through the steps. Not exactly a sponsor, but something along those lines. I gave him my number and he agreed to give me a bell yesterday, which he didn't. Silly bugger :=]
Anyhoo, I'm really committed to walking through the steps and also keeping it in sync with the progression of these meetings. One step a week might seem a bit fast, but apparently that's what this guy is into.
I really wanna to start work on step one, so I can have something completed by next Sunday. I just haven't got the vaguest notion what I should be doing. I know I should be writing something, but what exactly. I'd really appreciate some help :=]
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Wellington, NZ
Posts: 250
Hey thank you for your quick response :=] I'm might be being pernickity but I really wanna get something done before next Sunday- that meeting will be focusing on step 2, so it sort of makes sense in my overly regimented mind. Thanks :=]
Member
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Lakeside, Ca
Posts: 10,208
Originally Posted by andyroo72 
Anyhoo, I'm really committed to walking through the steps and also keeping it in sync with the progression of these meetings. One step a week might seem a bit fast, but apparently that's what this guy is into.
What I recovered from was the wreckage of my past.
Mountainman
PS -- Give the guy a call if you have his number. He volunteered -- work him.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 1,111
Originally Posted by andyroo72
Hey thank you for your quick response :=] I'm might be being pernickity but I really wanna get something done before next Sunday- that meeting will be focusing on step 2, so it sort of makes sense in my overly regimented mind. Thanks :=]
A.A. Way of Life - Working Step 1"
Step 1 in recovery from alcoholism
P
Member
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 158
A72, good on you for embarking on a journey through the Steps of AA. It just may save your life.
I did not write anything when I completed Step 1. This step was a mental and emotional process for me. It was not too difficult since there was overwhelming evidence in my life that I was powerless over alcohol and I could not continue to deny it.
Good luck with your journey, A72.
I did not write anything when I completed Step 1. This step was a mental and emotional process for me. It was not too difficult since there was overwhelming evidence in my life that I was powerless over alcohol and I could not continue to deny it.
Good luck with your journey, A72.
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
"We learned that we had to fully concede to our innersmost selves that we were alcoholic. This is the first step in recovery." Page 30. If uncertain, compare your experience with that written in the previous pages, The Doctors Opinion, Bill's Story, There Is A Solution. Then make sure there is no delusion that one day you might be able to drink normally.
The ask yourself a yes or no question... Do you concede to your innermost self that you are alcoholic?
If yes, you have taken step 1. Go on to step 2.
For me step one was a no-brainer. I had done all my research by the time I got to AA. John barleycorn was the best one to convince me.
The ask yourself a yes or no question... Do you concede to your innermost self that you are alcoholic?
If yes, you have taken step 1. Go on to step 2.
For me step one was a no-brainer. I had done all my research by the time I got to AA. John barleycorn was the best one to convince me.
Laozi Old Man
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 6,665
How about writing about the Bedevilments?
"We were having trouble with personal relationships, 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."
(page 52)
"We were having trouble with personal relationships, 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."
(page 52)
Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Mgm, AL
Posts: 1,000
Wise decision, Roo. I echo what everyone has already posted: Call him. It's your responsibility to follow up by taking the initiative to call him back.
Step 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
My sponsor put things into a very simplified regimen so I wouldn't over-think the program. Simply stated, he said, "Read the "Doctor's Opinion," in the Big Book. When you've read it, read it again and think of a craving as an obsession to drink that NEEDS satisfying. This whole Step is based on accepting that I am, in fact, physiologically incapable of controlling the reaction of the allergy OR the cravings. I am, well, POWERLESS over alcohol. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. And it's nothing I've done. In fact, I'd done EVERYTHING I could think of to STOP drinking.
I find that simple fact to be incredibly freeing because, up until I found this program, I was convinced that I didn't have the guts or the will to stop drinking and that was unacceptable. It's a new day that allows me the freedom from the responsibility to control it. I had to be HONEST deep down inside that I was powerless over alcohol.
Read The Promises. They are, in fact, Promises. If you're like me you'll want to dive right in and get that better life. Get better--be healed. I found that I have to work the program because the foundation--Honesty--is found in the first steps. Someone posted up above that they, "Had to admit to their innermost selves," that they were truly alcoholic. That's in the Big Book, too--pp 30, I believe.
This simple, yet crucial step--Step One--is the foundation for the entire program for me. I have to be, first and foremost, rigorously honest. Rigorously Honest. Not kinda. Not sorta. Completely. "Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed these steps." I had to be counting on that statement. I hadn't been sober for longer than a week at a time since I was young. REAL young. LONG before my teen years.
Finally, when you get up each morning, ask your Higher Power (you can use mine if you like) to "PLEASE show me something 'cool.'" Something fascinating! Amazing! Something that will make you go, "Ah! Cool!" And then make it your business to look for that One Cool Thing all day. At the end of the day, be sure to say, "Thanks!"
One day at a time...
And make the call. I went through the steps with my sponsor 1 per week (except step 4 which took about three weeks because we did it in two parts) and do it the same way for sponsees.
Embrace this gift you've been given and be Honest, Open and Willing in your pursuit. It WILL change your life and everything around it. That, my friend, is a promise alcoholics have been passing along since 1935... Godspeed.
Step 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
My sponsor put things into a very simplified regimen so I wouldn't over-think the program. Simply stated, he said, "Read the "Doctor's Opinion," in the Big Book. When you've read it, read it again and think of a craving as an obsession to drink that NEEDS satisfying. This whole Step is based on accepting that I am, in fact, physiologically incapable of controlling the reaction of the allergy OR the cravings. I am, well, POWERLESS over alcohol. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. And it's nothing I've done. In fact, I'd done EVERYTHING I could think of to STOP drinking.
I find that simple fact to be incredibly freeing because, up until I found this program, I was convinced that I didn't have the guts or the will to stop drinking and that was unacceptable. It's a new day that allows me the freedom from the responsibility to control it. I had to be HONEST deep down inside that I was powerless over alcohol.
Read The Promises. They are, in fact, Promises. If you're like me you'll want to dive right in and get that better life. Get better--be healed. I found that I have to work the program because the foundation--Honesty--is found in the first steps. Someone posted up above that they, "Had to admit to their innermost selves," that they were truly alcoholic. That's in the Big Book, too--pp 30, I believe.
This simple, yet crucial step--Step One--is the foundation for the entire program for me. I have to be, first and foremost, rigorously honest. Rigorously Honest. Not kinda. Not sorta. Completely. "Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed these steps." I had to be counting on that statement. I hadn't been sober for longer than a week at a time since I was young. REAL young. LONG before my teen years.
Finally, when you get up each morning, ask your Higher Power (you can use mine if you like) to "PLEASE show me something 'cool.'" Something fascinating! Amazing! Something that will make you go, "Ah! Cool!" And then make it your business to look for that One Cool Thing all day. At the end of the day, be sure to say, "Thanks!"
One day at a time...
And make the call. I went through the steps with my sponsor 1 per week (except step 4 which took about three weeks because we did it in two parts) and do it the same way for sponsees.
Embrace this gift you've been given and be Honest, Open and Willing in your pursuit. It WILL change your life and everything around it. That, my friend, is a promise alcoholics have been passing along since 1935... Godspeed.
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