Anything that helps you to stop and stay stopped is worth a try...it's called going to any lengths! Your sponsor is no doubt passing on to you what he was told by his sponsor, so you can't really hold that against him. However, with over 28 years of AA sobriety, I can't say that I've ever heard of a time-line given for starting to work the steps. If anyone here has heard of it, I'd be interested in their in-put.