Part of Step One is the recognition that one’s mind does not
work properly. It leads one to drinking; it sabotages other good things with
its relentless, specious negativity.
The structure of Step Two is this: ‘The way I think and therefore
live does not work; here are some people who have found a better way; I’ll do
what they did; no reason why it won’t work for me as some were even worse than
me.’
Step Three—and the follow-through in which the subsequent Steps
consist—is then automatic: following precisely in their footsteps.
Along the journey, the sabotaging mind—which is why we’re in
recovery at all—starts to adopt an advisory capacity, and we have a tendency to
listen to it.
‘This’ll never work. I’m not able to do this. It’s all too
much. What’s the point? I hate everything’. (That sort of thing.) So we stall,
delay, or give up altogether.
The Germans have a phrase: Augen zu und durch. ‘Eyes shut and [bash
on] through.’ That should be an AA slogan.
Anyone can get well. Really the only thing that can stop us
is putting our trust back in the part of the mind that is the problem in the
first place.