Practical experience shows that nothing will so much ensure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. (Big Book)
One of the ways in which we help ourselves to serenity and an orderly life is through Twelfth Step work ... (One Day At A Time In Al-Anon, November 30)
The first eleven steps are the preparation for the meal. The meal is Step Twelve: spiritual awakening, carrying the message, serving God and only God in all I do.
If I'm hungry, it's because I'm not eating food. That could be because I didn't prepare the food, in other words I didn't take the first eleven steps. If I've taken the first eleven steps, the problem is that I haven't eaten the meal I prepared. Even if it's a while since I prepared it, it can be quickly warmed up in the oven.
When I’ve got a problem, I often think I’m back at Step One or think I need another Step Four. Usually, I don’t. Normally what I need is to seek God and the Higher Realms in Step Eleven, restructure my life around service in and outside the fellowship in Step Twelve, and clean out all of the defective beliefs, thinking, and behaviour in Step Ten, as they come up during the day. Anything that does not come up cannot be all that important, anyway. But the activating kick-start for this whole process is Step Twelve. Sometimes, when the battery is dead, one needs to start off by pushing the car, and so I get out there and carry the message in meetings. Soon enough, my time is filled with people to help. Then, once a new schedule for my day and week is established, I can go back and clear up any odds and ends in the first nine steps that might have been missed, have grown back, or have arisen in the meantime as my life has changed. I’ve found this much more effective than plonking myself immediately back at Step One and reserving myself a good year or two of staring at myself (and inveigling someone else into the solipsistic exercise) before having to put myself out for God. I am the problem. God is the answer. The programme IS Step Twelve. The preceding eleven steps are the preparation.