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Copyright © A.A. World Services, Inc.
Reprinted with permission.
- We admitted we were powerless
over alcohol -- that our lives had
become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power
greater than ourselves could restore
us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will
and our lives over to the care of
God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless
moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves,
and to another human being the exact
nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God
remove all these defects of
character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our
shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we
had harmed, and became willing to
make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such
people wherever possible, except
when to do so would injure them or
others.
- Continued to take personal
inventory, and when we were wrong
promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and
meditation to improve 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.
- 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.
- Our common welfare should come
first; personal recovery depends
upon AA unity.
- For our group purpose there is
but one ultimate authority -- a
loving God as He may express Himself
in our group conscience. Our leaders
are but trusted servants; they do
not govern.
- The only requirement for AA
membership is a desire to stop
drinking.
- Each group should be autonomous
except in matters affecting other
groups or AA as a whole.
- Each group has but one primary
purpose -- to carry its message to
the alcoholic who still suffers.
- An AA group ought never endorse,
finance, or lend the AA name to any
related facility or outside
enterprise, lest problems of money,
property, and prestige divert us
from our primary purpose.
- Every AA group ought to be fully
self-supporting, declining outside
contributions.
- Alcoholics Anonymous should
remain forever nonprofessional, but
our service centers may employ
special workers.
- AA, as such, ought never be
organized; but we may create service
boards or committees directly
responsible to those they serve.
- Alcoholics Anonymous has no
opinion on outside issues; hence the
AA name ought never be drawn into
public controversy.
- Our public relations policy is
based on attraction rather than
promotion; we need always maintain
personal anonymity at the level of
press, radio, and films.
- Anonymity is the spiritual
foundation of all our traditions,
ever reminding us to place
principles before personalities.
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