When is the right time to take the Steps
 

Too many times people think they have to understand the Steps before they take them. My experience has been understanding how they work comes as we experience the miracle of the spiritual experience. If I had waited until I could understand how the steps worked before I took them I would never have gotten or stayed sober. This is a simple program of action. Some of the best advice I was given in this program is keep it simple, don't over think it, it is not an intellectual program, and work the Steps in every aspect of my life. It is through the application of the steps in our lives that we gain an understanding of how they work. Don't wait, jump in with both feet just as we did when we drank it is only then that we can experience the miracle of a happy, joyous, and free sobriety.

I had to wait for the time in which I was able to understand em trust me it was a long time before I learned to start doing my steps let alone that I have to do them every day!!!!!

That is very understandable. I still do not completely understand them, I just keep applying them and I learn more each day. :ghug

LOL KNOW that feeling

Maybe a better title would be when is the best time to start applying the steps.....lol

I couldnt at first I so didnt want to see them and Big P kept his program right there in the wide open so I basically started getting used to seeing my flaws threw another persons eyes and the making amends and then it becomes second nature....lol

maybe I need to work a little harder on my steps.......

:ring

Please explain...? Great thread tho! :)

:c011:

Best Kept Secret is a book, Fern....

Thanks, sugar... :)

TheBig book tells me precisely when I am ready to take the steps.

yuppers. thn after takin em and having a spiritual awakening, then i really complicated it by asking,"why do they work???" :scared: good thing for a good sponsor to say,"tom, get outta yer head and go help someone."

I am so not spiritual or religious, so i cant find any connection for the steps,but i am very stong, but if i was that strong i would not be writing this in the first place:scared:

When is the right time to take the Steps

................Hmmm....... right away, as soon as possible.

Its life or death, and we alcoholics like to play games with it.

Its like a man with cancer, who waits for the right moment for the stars and skies to align, for the perfect sunny cloudless day, no rain for a week, sliver of a moon, at the right longtitude, with the right woman, at the right bar, drinking the right drink, feeling the right way............... to make an appointment for chemo-therapy. So you can wait around, twiddle your thumbs, keep the seat warm, and gamble at Russian Roulette that no ones gunna look at you the wrong way, or cut you off in traffic in which you can go on a 10 minute rant in a meeting about, and drink over it. Luck of the draw I guess, better to have some solid statistics on the Big Book game, over 75% recovery rate. I loooooove those odds.

When is the right time to take the steps
 

When is the right time to take the steps?

Immediately.

At once.

Now.

People die because they wait.

I thank God for the people in my life who taught me that I just needed to stop trying to analyze and understand the steps, stop trying to do the steps my way, and to just take action and do what I was told to do.

We will not understand the steps until AFTER we get a spiritual awakening.

It does not matter that you are not spiritual or religious. I wasn't either. I became spiritual as I did the steps.

Read the a, b, c's again in the big book. That's all you need to get right now....that you're an alcoholic and your life is unmanageable, that no human power could help, and that a higher power of your conception, energy, science, wherever your strength comes from, whatever it is right now, could if one was sought. That's it. Don't get caught up with analyzing it. If you believe in whatever "power" makes the sun set and rise, that is good enough.

Remember that Step 3 is a DECISION, not an action step.

Sobriety has absolutely nothing to do with how strong you are as a person. This is not about self-will, strength, will power, discipline, knowledge. No human power, no matter how strong, can conquer the disease of addiction. I hope this helps. Sometimes my posts are too wordy but I'm trying my best to be clear and not confuse you.

Newcomer asks oldtimer "When should I take the steps?" Oldtimer replies "When do you want to recover? If you want to recover now, we will take the steps now. If you want to recover later, then I guess we can put off taking the steps, but you will probably drink".

Or some the best advice I heard recently "Leap before you look" and " Keep the action ahead of your thinking".

^^^^
And, as soon as you quit drinking, start taking the steps.