TO TAKE (verb): accept, adopt; use (experience, practice); understand (believe, comprehend, think); be successful (operate, prevail, work); help oneself to (accept, attain).

For the ‘seriously alcoholic’ there IS NO middle-of-the-road solution, half-measures, short-cuts, or secular method to a full recovery. If you attend AA groups just to get court slips signed, please “take the cotton out of your ears, and put it in your mouth,” which suggests that you try to listen with an open mind, and comment or ask questions AFTER the meeting .

Studying the Steps is not the same as taking the Steps

The Big Book says, “Here are the steps we took” not ‘here are the steps we read and talked about.” We ought to study AS we take the steps. Going to a Big Book or 12&12 book study does NOT mean that you have ‘taken the steps.’  The AA pioneers proved that action, not knowledge, produced the spiritual awakening that resulted in recovery from alcoholism. “…we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined. But this is not all. There is action and more action. Faith without works is dead.”

‘90 in 90’ is NOT taking the steps or working the AA Program

Archie M: “I wonder how many alcoholics upon finding out they had a deadly ailment and a doctor had a cure would sit in the doctor’s waiting room 90 times in 90 days (or for a year or more) and wait for the medicine to be administered to them. I also wonder how many alcoholics do the same thing concerning our 12 Steps; they go to 90 meetings in 90 days hoping to have a spiritual awakening without taking the Steps.”

Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, page 101—
“Dorothy S.M. recalled the 1937 meetings…”  “The newcomers surrendered in the presence of all those other people.  After the surrender, many of the steps—involving inventory, admission of character defects, and making restitution—were taken within a matter of days.”

How SOON should you take the steps?

Barefoot Bill Lash asks, “When do you want to get well?” Link here for his article on AA History Lovers group: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/6245

An excerpt:
“I have been scolded a few times (by fellow AAs) because of the fact that I sometimes share at meetings about how the Steps are meant to be worked immediately and quickly. I’ve been told that this “theory” will “harm” newcomers (having only a few days, a few weeks, or a few months) who could not possibly be “ready” to do the work yet. Then I’m usually told that these new members should just go to meetings for a while and eventually they’ll “know” when they are ready to get into the Program. In the early days of AA, when a new person showed up to their first meeting and asked about when they were going to get into working the Steps, established members usually asked them, “When do you want to get well?
If you want to get well now, we’ll be working the Steps now. If you DON’T want to get well now, I guess you can put off the Steps, but by doing so you’re probably going to drink.” I do not agree that we first get our life together and then turn to God. I believe that we turn to God and then, AND ONLY THEN, do we begin to get our life together. That’s exactly what the Steps are all about.”

From the Akron Guide to The Twelve Steps—INTRODUCTION:
“The Twelve Steps are the logical process by which an alcoholic finds and maintains sobriety and becomes rehabilitated. It has been the history of AA that any alcoholic who has followed this program without deviation has remained sober. Those who have tried to cut corners, skip over steps, have eventually found themselves in trouble. This has been the rule rather than the exception.”
“It is important that the newcomer be introduced to the Twelve Steps at as early a date as possible. On these rules depend his full recovery. If you feel that the Steps are a bit too complicated at first, you can introduce them to your “baby” in a simplified form, going into the complete program later.”
“The Twelve Steps follow a logical sequence, one that has been used almost universally by successful members of AA. They were carefully thought out by the founders of the organization and are as true and as necessary to successful recovery from alcoholism today as they were when they were written.”

If you have determined for yourself that you are seriously alcoholic, ask yourself, “Do I want to get well? …if so, how soon? …and am I now completely willing to follow a few simple rules for full recovery?”

Again—for the ‘seriously alcoholic’ there IS NO middle-of-the-road solution, half-measures, or short-cuts. As shown by early AA experience, we take the steps (action) ASAP IF we want to get well. We have our first spiritual awakening as the result of doing the work. As we continue to take the steps (more is disclosed to us as to what we had omitted during the first go-around), we have more spiritual awakenings. And so we continue on our daily spiritual maintenance to stay recovered from our seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.

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ETC, a recovered (but not cured) alcoholic in Oregon