When you're bailing out a rowing boat, you've got to bail out faster than the water is coming in. In fact, you've got to bail out so fast there is time to plug the holes to stop the water coming in in the first place. It's like that with any set of spiritual exercises like the Twelve Steps: too slow, and you sink, because the water comes in faster than you can bail it out. What's more: any learning along the way is lost if it is not reinforced by incorporation into daily routines and ongoing learning. Each learning is not a separable nugget. It's a building block in a structure. You don't learn a language by attending one class a month. You learn it by making progress in the course daily and implementing the learning daily. Its the same with Twelve Steps.