LETTING GO OF OUR OLD SELVES

 LETTING GO OF OUR OLD SELVES

 

Carefully reading the first five proposals

we ask if we have omitted anything,

for we are building an arch

through which we shall walk a free man at last. . . .

Are we now ready to let God

remove from us all the things

which we have admitted are objectionable?

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp. 75, 76

 

The Sixth Step is the last preparation Step.

Although I have already used prayer extensively,

I have made no formal request of my Higher Power

in the first Six Steps.

I have identified my problem,

come to believe that there is a solution,

made a decision to seek this solution,

and have cleaned house.

I now ask: Am I willing to live a life of sobriety,

of change, to let go of my old self?

I must determine if I am truly ready to change.

I review what I have done and become willing

for God to remove all my defects of character;

for in the next Step, I will tell my Creator

I am willing and will ask for help.

If I have been thorough

in the preparation of my foundation

and feel that I am willing to change,

I am then ready to continue with the next Step.

If we still cling to something we will not let go,

we ask God to help us be willing.

(Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 76)

 

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Personality Change

 

"It has often been said of A.A.

that we are interested only in alcoholism.

That is not true.

We have to get over drinking in order to stay alive.

But anyone who knows the alcoholic personality

by firsthand contact

knows that no true alky ever stops

drinking permanently without undergoing

a profound personality change."

 

We thought "conditions" drove us to drink,

and when we tried to correct these conditions

and found that we couldn't do so to our entire satisfaction,

our drinking went out of hand and we became alcoholics.

It never occurred to us that we needed to change ourselves

to meet conditions, whatever they were.

1. Letter, 1940

2. 12 & 12, p. 47

3. As Bill Sees It, p. 1