Secular 12-Steps with A Checklist
Measuring our progress, a checkup. How am I doing today?
What questions can I ask myself?
“All successful women and men have a plan.”
12 Steps for tapping unsuspected inner resources
When it gets my attention, I find the Power of Desire within, the beginning of tapping into unsuspected inner resources. Each Step taps into more innate power.
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
[I concede to my innermost self that I am alcoholic—that on my own I am powerless to confront and resolve my addictions.]
Tapping into the Power of Self-Honesty
Am I trying to do it alone?
Do I recall what it did for me and to me?
Am I convinced that I am powerless over alcohol if I pick up that first drink or am I willing to start lying to myself again?
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
[I learn to trust and hope that a new course of action, practice of these Twelve Steps in a supportive fellowship, can and will restore me to sanity].
Tapping into the Power of Identification and Hope
Am I continuing to attend meetings to learn from others and my own experience?
Am I at least trying to use the tools provided?
How is my life better?
- Made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God as we understood Him.
[I make a daily decision to turn my will and my life over to this 12 step process and development of the inner resources they help me find and follow.]
Tapping into the Power of Choice, taking back power
How am I executing my plans?
Do I recognize and respect my limits?
Am I still judging myself on past habits and reactions?
Is my sobriety still my priority, or is sobriety losing its priority (SLIP)?
A THIRD STEP DECISION: “Inner wisdom, love, compassion and protection, I offer myself to you, to build with me and to do with me as you will. Relieve me of the bondage of self-limiting and destructive attitudes, emotions ideas, opinions, understandings and yearnings (AEIOU&Y) that stand in the way of my usefulness, happiness, joy, and freedom. Take away my difficulties that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of the power, the love and the way of life available to all willing to accept, begin and continue this work.”
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
[I learn how to take a searching, fearless, and honest inventory of myself, my thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions.]
Tapping into the Power of Reflection and Remembering
What is hurt or threatened: pocketbook, self-esteem, ambition, relationships?
What am I running from, what am I still hiding?
Am I continuing to learn from past and present experiences, reactions and responses?
How am I doing on my “sain and sound ideal” for my future relationships?
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
[I admit to myself and to another person what I learn about myself, sharing my life story—withholding nothing.]
Tapping into the Power of Telling and Listening
Am I practicing openness and honesty with myself and others?
Am I keeping any secrets?
Am I open and honest with at least one other person?
Have I found such a person to trust?
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
[I become willing to let go of anything and everything holding me back.]
Tapping into the Power of Willingness, Real Desire
Am I convinced that certain human weaknesses & defenses can hold me back? Am I watching out for shifting to other addictions to escape or distract?
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
[I use whatever personal power and resources I find to help me confront self-limiting liabilities and defenses when they crop up.]
Tapping into the Power of Letting Go . . . The Power of No . . .The Power of Courage
Am I decisive in letting go and saying no to old knee-jerk reactions, that sense of being driven?
A SEVENTH STEP DECISION: “Innermost self (higher consciousness, great reality, true self, authentic self), I am now willing that you have all of me, good and bad. I ask that you now remove from me every character weakness which stands in the way of my usefulness, happiness, joy and freedom. As I go out from here, may I find the strength I need to stay on this path.”
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
[I list all persons I have harmed and become willing to make things right.]
Tapping into the Power of Willingness
Are there still persons to whom I owe something and am I willing to try making things right? Who are they?
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
[I make things right with all I have harmed, wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.]
Tapping into the Power of Restitution
Can I make or plan to make restitution today without opening old wounds or causing additional harm?
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
[I continue to take personal inventory and when I am wrong promptly admit it.] Tapping into the Power of Mindfulness and Repetition
Am I being mindfully attentive to my word and actions?
Do I review my list of common human weaknesses and defenses most days?
Have I become comfortable with promptly admitting when I am wrong?
- Sought through prayer and meditation to prove 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.
[I seek through meditation and self-examination to increase awareness of my deepest thoughts and feelings, seeking only for the knowledge of what is right and the power to carry that out.]
Tapping into the Power of Intent/Intention
How is the “upon awakening” morning practice of planning the day working for me?
Am I writing out the plan most days and trying to follow it? Are those days more efficient?
Does it feel good to check things off as I go through the day?
Does this practice help me feel better about the person I am, have become?
- 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.
[Awakening through the practice of these Steps to the spiritual and non-material in my life, I try to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all of my affairs.] Tapping into the Powers of Sharing and Purpose
Is this the message of recovery I try to share?
Is it clear that each Step suggests a clear course of action for my daily living?
DO I FEEL HAPPY, JOYOUS AND FREE (most of the time)?
When I find the Power of Desire coming from within, I have begun tapping into “an unsuspected inner resource.”