Tyler--
Both my present and previous sponsor say told me that the first three are the "given" steps. They cannot be worked in the way the others are.
My sponsor thinks his function is to take me through the last eight steps. I check in periodically, but he does not want to be my "friend" so the conversation does not get too detailed. So he does not make much in the way of suggestions. If he did, I probably would not have come here with so many years backlog of questions about recovery.
My previous sponsor was a bit more personal with me. But he also said that his function in my recovery was only about the steps.