These Are the Steps We Took
We Admitted We Were Powerless
Step One — The Diagnosis
Joe McQ and Charlie P. explain Step One as the essential diagnosis — the foundational "problem statement" of the entire recovery process. Before any solution can be applied, the person in recovery must fully understand and concede to their innermost self the exact nature of the problem.
Step One is not a casual admission. It is a profound, ego-shattering realization that human willpower, intelligence, and self-will are insufficient to solve this problem alone. Joe and Charlie argue that without a deep, honest understanding of this diagnosis, no subsequent step will take hold.
The Two-Part Problem
- Part One — The Physical Allergy (The Body): Once a person introduces their substance or compulsive behavior into their system, an abnormal physical reaction is triggered. This creates a "phenomenon of craving" — a compulsion that makes it physically impossible to stop once started. This is not a moral failing; it is a biological reality.
- Part Two — The Mental Obsession (The Mind): Critically, the insanity does not begin at the moment of first use — it begins in the mind, long before the substance is ever touched. This is a disease of the mind that operates fully while the person is completely sober. The mind produces a thought so powerful it overrides all reasons not to engage, convincing the person that this time will be different; that they can control it; that they need it to cope. This mental blank spot — what Joe and Charlie call "stinking thinking" — is what makes the problem self-defeating. We are, in a very real sense, allergic to our own thinking. For this reason, we must remain constantly vigilant: entertaining ideas of using, romanticizing the past, or letting resentment and self-pity go unchecked are not harmless thoughts. They are the first link in a chain that ends in relapse.
- Total Powerlessness: Because the body cannot stop once started AND the mind cannot stay away from the idea of using, the person is rendered absolutely powerless. Neither part alone would be fatal — together they form an inescapable trap that no human power can unlock. This is why willpower, good intentions, and moral resolve are never enough on their own.
Joe & Charlie — What They Teach
- "Many try to 'mess around' before finally, truly meaning it when they say they are through."
- Step One requires surrendering self-propulsion, self-direction, and self-reliance — all three must go.
- It is a "conclusion of the mind" — not an emotional breakdown, but a clear-eyed rational acceptance of a fact.
- The "gift of desperation" — a willingness to do anything — only comes when a person has truly hit their bottom with Step One.
- Without a genuinely convinced Step One, Step Two makes no sense and Steps Three through Nine cannot be sustained.
Came to Believe That a Power Greater Than Ourselves
Step Two — The Prescription
If Step One is the diagnosis, Step Two is the prescription. Joe and Charlie describe the transition from Step One to Step Two as the move from a hopeless problem to a hopeful solution. Step One left us "absolutely licked" — Step Two offers the first glimmer of a way out.
"Sanity" here does not mean clinical mental health. It refers specifically to the mental obsession — the insane idea that we can use our substance or engage in our behavior and get a different result. Step Two asks simply: can we believe that something — anything — greater than our own thinking can restore us to clear, rational thought?
Joe and Charlie emphasize that Step Two requires only willingness to believe — not deep faith, not certainty, not a specific religious tradition. The Big Book says "We found that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him." The only requirement is an open mind and a willingness to try.
Step One's diagnosis was powerlessness — a lack of power to manage the problem on our own. Step Two answers that lack of power directly. It does not ask for more willpower; it only asks for a willingness to believe that power is available from somewhere outside ourselves.
The Second Step Proposition — Page 53
The Big Book states: "Either God is everything or else God is nothing. What was our choice to be?" Joe and Charlie teach that this is the pivotal intellectual question of Step Two. It forces a binary choice and eliminates the comfortable middle ground of a vague "sort of" belief.
- If human power was sufficient, Step One would not be true — but we have already proven it is
- Therefore, something beyond human power must be available
- Step Two does not require the sponsee to find "a God in the sky" — it requires only a willingness to believe that a Power exists that can do what human power cannot
- This Power is often first experienced in the Fellowship itself, or in the sponsor relationship
Made a Decision to Turn Our Will and Our Lives
Step Three — Completion
Made a Searching & Fearless Moral Inventory
Step Four — From Daily Practice to a Full Accounting
In Step Three we started sorting each day's choices into two columns — the liability column, where self-will run riot, and the asset column, where we let God direct us instead. Step Four takes that same sorting and turns it inward, permanently. Instead of one day's situations, we are recording and examining the bigger challenges of our whole life — the patterns underneath the incidents, not just the incidents themselves.
The purpose is simple, even if the work isn't: we are going to remove the things that have been blocking us from the "sunlight of the Spirit" (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 66). That means cleaning house, and cleaning our own side of the street, so we can finally get an honest, clear-eyed look at the pain and trauma we've carried, the resentments we've held toward others, and the people we ourselves have harmed.
Why Resentment Comes First
The inventory below starts with resentment because the Big Book puts it first, and for good reason — of everything sitting in the liability column, it is the one most likely to quietly destroy an alcoholic. Each resentment recorded here is one item pulled out of that column and set down on paper, where it can finally be examined instead of carried.
Step Four — Completion
Admitted to God, to Ourselves, and to Another Human Being
Step Five — Completion
Were Entirely Ready to Have God Remove All These Defects
What does "entirely ready" mean?
- I am willing to have God remove this — even if I still feel the pull toward it
- I understand this defect has cost me more than it has given me
- I accept I cannot remove it by will-power alone
- I am asking God — not myself — to do the removing
Step Six — Completion
Humbly Asked God to Remove Our Shortcomings
Step Seven — Completion
Made a List of All Persons We Had Harmed
Do I owe an amend?
- Did I affect their self-esteem, emotional security, or peace of mind?
- Did I affect their personal relationships or family?
- Did I affect their finances or livelihood?
- Did I affect their sex life or intimate relationships?
- Am I willing — not necessarily eager — to make this right?
All fields are editable — click any cell to change it.
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