“Admitted we were powerless over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable.”

1. Every “natural” instinct cries out against the idea of a personal powerlessness (defects of the thinking mind).

2. We perceive that only through utter defeat are we able to take our first step toward liberation and strength (making the admission we are unmanageable by us).

3. Until we have humbled ourselves (accepting the devastating weakness and all its consequences) our sobriety if any will be precarious.

4. The principle: We shall find no enduring strength until we first admit complete defeat (that probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.

5. We are the victims of a mental obsession, thinking (droning is only a symptom) so subtly powerful that no amount of human willpower could have relived our alcoholism).

6. By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it, we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression.

7. Few people will sincerely try to practice the AA program until they have hit their bottom in utter defeat. 8. In order to practice AA’s remaining eleven steps WE MUST ADOPT NEW ATTITUDES AND TAKE NEW ACTIONS.

9. We must become as open minded to conviction and as willing to listen as the dying can be.

Walsh, Brian. “Step 1 A Brief Outline” – taken from 12 Steps and 12 Traditions