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Let's Do Lunch: In Hollywood, where everyone and his brother seems to have an agent, a man stands up at an AA meeting. "Hello," he says. "My name is Bill. I represent Ken, who is an alcoholic."
-Archie, Alcoholic Anonymous 2 (http://groups.yahoo.com, keyword alcoholicanonymous2)

No Standing Zone: The length of time that it takes for people to take the Steps varies with each individual. I'm going to be a little controversial here because I believe it needs to be said: Most people suffer needlessly and take way too long to do the Steps. Certainly a cacophony of posts should follow but hear me out.

One of the traps that people often fall into is believing that they have all the time in the world to do the Steps. With most people coming into AA at, relatively speaking, high bottoms in many cases, we often find out that going to meetings almost daily and applying some will power gets us through without having to contend with those pesky steps. So, of course, why bother with Step 4 or whatever step we have little interest in taking? Our egos re-surge and tell us that we don't need all that drastic house cleaning.

Another trap we fall into is the self-directed program. We, ourselves, decide when it is time to move on to the next step. I know if I was left to my own devices I'd still be on Step 3. My sponsor told me when it was time to move to the next step. He certainly knew more than I about achieving sobriety. And he was right - he made me do Step 4 before I felt I was ready.

But then again, when am I really ready? When a rope is around my neck? The entire 12 Step process is marked by facing some unpleasant things about ourselves, facing some of our base fears, swallowing our pride, puncturing our egos, discarding old ideas for new. These aren't things that come naturally or easily to alcoholics as a class. They make us uncomfortable. They may be painful. It's simple but not easy.

We don't have to do the steps perfectly! My experience with each and every step has increased in the years that have transpired. And, believe it or not, working the last three steps each day mirrors the process of the first nine steps anyway. So, in an absolute sense, we can take our sweet time doing these steps.

The question becomes this:How long are we willing to continue to suffer from untreated alcoholism?
-Jim 8/8/80, Alcoholic Anonymous 2 (http://groups.yahoo.com, keyword "alcoholicanonymous2")

And Furthermore: It's never to early to get into our Steps. The point is to try and practice them to the best of our ability, not to master them when we think we are well enough.
-Archie, Alcoholic Anonymous 2 (http://groups.yahoo.com, keyword "alcoholicanonymous2")

(Alcoholics Anonymous)