12 Steps to Personal Growth

The original 12 steps were formulated for the Alcoholics Anonymous program. Arising from the widespread use of the program for dealing with alcoholism, the steps have been adapted for numerous other addictions and dysfunctional behavior.

The Twelve Steps were first published in the book, Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939. The method was then adapted, and became the foundation of other twelve-step programs such as Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Co-Dependents Anonymous and Debtors Anonymous.

Many self help organizations have adopted the 12 steps program and they have adapted it to suit their needs.

I have heard it many times in many places that the 12 steps program can be great for personal development and change. We all have aspects of ourselves we would like to change so with this in mind I have taken the liberty to adapt the steps to suit the goal of personal growth.

There is usually a strong spiritual side to these steps. If you feel uncomfortable with this you could view your Higher Power as your intuition or subconscious and natural ability to take care of yourself.

This is a long term project and I am going to embark on this journey too. Let me know what you think of my adapted version of the twelve steps and let me know how you get on with them! I have been assured that once you start these steps your life will change for the better forever!

12 Steps to Personal Growth

1. Admit that there are things we are powerless over and be honest and confess that sometimes our lives are unmanageable.

2. Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of our Higher power as we understood that power to be.

4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admit to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. When we are entirely ready, to have our Higher Power remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly ask our Higher Power to remove our shortcomings.

8. Make a list of all persons we have harmed or seriously wronged, and become willing to make amends to them all.

9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admit it.

11. Seek through prayer, meditation or using deep relaxation technique to improve our conscious contact with our Higher Power as we understood that power to be. We ask only for knowledge of that Higher Power's will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual and personal awakening as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to other people in need, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Good Luck!

Allen