Page 278 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

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HE SOLD HIMSELF SHORT 263
it was Dr. Bob’s afternoon off—he had me to the
office and we spent three or four hours formally
going through the Six-Step program as it was at that
time. The six steps were:
1. Complete deflation.
2. Dependence and guidance from a Higher Power.
3. Moral inventory.
4. Confession.
5. Restitution.
6. Continued work with other alcoholics.
Dr. Bob led me through all of these steps. At the
moral inventory, he brought up several of my bad
personality traits or character defects, such as selfish­
ness, conceit, jealousy, carelessness, intolerance, ill-
temper, sarcasm, and resentments. We went over these at
great length, and then he finally asked me if I wanted
these defects of character removed. When I said yes,
we both knelt at his desk and prayed, each of us ask­
ing to have these defects taken away.
This picture is still vivid. If I live to be a hundred,
it will always stand out in my mind. It was very im­
pressive, and I wish that every A.A. could have the
benefit of this type of sponsorship today. Dr. Bob al­
ways emphasized the religious angle very strongly,
and I think it helped. I know it helped me. Dr. Bob
then led me through the restitution step, in which I
made a list of all of the persons I had harmed and
worked out the ways and the means of slowly making
restitution.
I made several decisions at that time. One of them
was that I would try to get a group started in Chicago;
the second was that I would have to return to Akron
to attend meetings at least every two months until I