Step 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step 2. Came to believe that a power greater than ouselves could restore us to sanity.

Step 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.

Step 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 5. Admitted to god, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step 6. Were entirely ready to have god remove all these defects of character.

Step 7. Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.

Step 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with god as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.

Step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Copyright © A.A. World Services, Inc. Reprinted by Permission
The A.A. The book "The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions," is available from the General Service Office, Grand Central Station, P.O. Box 459, New York, NY 10163. Also available from your Central/Intergroup Office.

The Twelve Steps - Illustrated
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