The 12 Steps: Judge the Outcome - not the Methodology

The 12 Steps: Judge the Outcome - not the Methodology 

The 12 Steps are, in there very essence a methodology designed to produce a very specific outcome.  The program as outlined in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous is not the least bit; theoretical, academic, or hypothetical in terms of the outcome produced by working through 12 Steps as instructed.  That’s right, the Big Book’s first 164 pages are an instruction manual on how to achieve a change within ourselves sufficient enough to arrest our addiction and/or alcoholism.  The methodology of the 12 Steps don’t appear to make a whole hell of a lot of sense at first blush.  Admitting powerlessness and unmanageability doesn’t appear to be incredibly helpful if we’re trying to overcome addiction.  Trusting in a higher power to restore sanity around our disease sounds more like religious voodoo than a solid plan to eradicate the obsession to drink and use.  Moral inventories and removal of character defects might be swell, but what does that have to do with the fact that I don’t sober well?  Making amends sounds a lot like apologizing, and I’m pretty sure nobody I know wants to hear another empty apology.  Steps 11 and 12 seem like lofty goals to aspire to, but somehow not pertinent to the fact that all I ever want to do is get out of my own skin – to smash that eject button in the form of whatever substance or behavior that able to convince myself that it’s okay to use.  

The 12 Steps are a methodology that must be worked thoroughly in order to produce the desired outcome – a spiritual awakening sufficient to recover; that is that the obsession is arrested provided we do what is asked of us.  Our job then, is to judge the results of working the steps – not to pre-judge the methodology prior to working through it.  I believe this has to be true for other recovery programs as well; that they must be worked as directed in order to achieve the desired result.  Simply attending recovery meetings and fellowship is likely not going to be an effective long-term solution.  We must do the work; and be observant of the results.  For me; when I worked Step One I realized the result was I made way for a power greater than myself to operate within me.  Steps two and three allowed me to tap into that God of my Understanding which has proven to be the absolute difference maker in my Recovery – despite how skeptical I was of thinking that creating my own Higher Power would provide any meaningful relief of my condition.  But I prayed anyhow – and something I still can’t explain happens when I continue to pray to a God I absolutely did not understand in the beginning.  Steps four and five gave me necessary insight to my behavior patterns and what was the root cause of these destructive behaviors; as well as essential shame shedding by virtue of sharing my inner most demons with the God of My Understanding and another person.  Steps eight and nine allowed me to get right with the people I had harmed as a result of my destructive default programming; the behavior patterns I was operating with because it was the only way I knew how to get through life.  Steps 10 & 11 allow me to continue to be mindful of the principles I learned in Steps 1-9 on a daily basis; so my disease continues to be arrested; one day at a time.  Step 12; having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.  I learned that in order to keep what I have, I MUST give it away to anyone who’ll have it.  

Reading these steps and trying to apply our current experience in order to predict the efficacy will not produce the vital change needed to recover.  We MUST work each and every step with honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness.


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