Summary: <a href="http://therecoveryshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0379.jpg"></a>Start where you are. Bring your angry self. Bring your despairing self. Bring your resentful and frustrated self. Bring your confused self. And we will meet you there.<br> Sometimes I think I need to be “ready” before I can do something, before I can make a change. But that’s not true of our program. I was able to start where I was, and I can still start where I am. How does this work? How was I able to “start where I am” at each point along the path of recovery? Because recovery is a process, not an event.<br> <br> * Walking into my first meeting.<br> <br> * You met me where I was. You didn’t require that I know anything, that I agree to anything, you just welcomed me.<br> <br> <br> * Step 1: We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.<br> <br> * My first challenge – what does “powerless” mean? Can I admit that I am “powerless”? How do I recognize the unmanageability of my life? Is this where I am right now?<br> <br> <br> * Step 2: Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.<br> <br> * I start into this step where I am: questioning the very existence of a Higher Power. Some start into this step with a vengeful, angry God. No matter where we start, we can find an understanding of this step.<br> <br> <br> * Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.<br> <br> * If my starting point is “the meeting is my HP”, I can look for guidance and wisdom in the meeting, and try to follow that.<br> <br> <br> * Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.<br> <br> * This step has always met me where I was. As my starting point has changed, the inventory has also changed. My new point of view has revealed other aspects of myself, which were not visible earlier.<br> <br> <br> * Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.<br> <br> * My first starting point for this step was “no way!” My second starting point was “there’s some stuff I’m just not going to talk about.” I *think* that, at this time, I’ve admitted all my wrongs, but I might be wrong about that.<br> * Each time, there was power in the step, no matter where I started, and how “well” I did it. The point is to take the step, not to take it perfectly.<br> <br> <br> * Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.<br> <br> * Again, my starting point has “moved” with time. I’ve gone from “well, of course” to “um, not that one!” to “please help me to become willing”.<br> * I didn’t understand this step the first time I “took” it, but I did it anyway.<br> <br> <br> * Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.<br> <br> * What does this step mean if I don't have a concrete idea of G-o-d?<br> * But, I found that, when I ask for help, I find it, and I change.<br> <br> <br> * Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.<br> <br> * The literature suggested that I can group my list into: people I am willing to make amends to, people I might be willing to make amends to, and those people who I was not willing to make amends to.<br> * I started there, and found that my lists changed as I moved into Step 9.<br> <br> <br> * Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.<br> <br> * Do the easy ones first, and don't worry about doing it perfectly!<br> <br> <br> * Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.<br> <br> * I started doing this step before I actually got to it. Because I didn't want to add new things to my “Step 4 inventory.”<br> <br> <br>
