A Program For All
- Admission of powerlessness.
- Reliance on a Higher Power.
- Total surrender to God.
- Moral inventory.
- Admission of the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Commitment to total change.
- Prayer for total wholeness.
- Total willingness to amend.
- Making amends where possible.
- Continuing inventory.
- Prayer and meditation, leading to improved conscious contact with God.
- Spiritual awakening, carrying the message, and practicing the principles in all our affairs.
When the Steps are epitomized like this, you can clearly see that they aim, not at normalcy, but at full spiritual regeneration — at a life lived one day at a time in conscious contact with God.
Yet the Twelve Steps, even though they are clearly aiming at the mountain top, are so plainly worded, and so well explained in chapter five of the AA Big Book, that they can be done by anyone. And therein lies their great genius. There is no prior requirement of purity of life or advancement of learning. Just a willingness to admit personal defeat and a sincere desire to change.