Working the Steps – Step 7

In Step Six we ready ourselves to have our shortcomings removed; a difficult, but necessary step towards recovery.

Step Seven is the perfect transition from the previous steps, wherein we took a moral inventory, shared it with our higher power and another human being and further readied ourselves for the final steps to a life of sobriety.

Step Seven

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Step Seven is the process of actually getting rid of the character defects we have discovered through steps Four, Five and Six, by asking our higher power to help us continue to recognize them and remove them from our daily lives.

Once you have reached Step Seven in the 12 Steps, it’s important to understand that asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s actually a sign of strength.

We have taken the very difficult moral inventory and admitted to our wrongdoings to ourselves, our higher power and to another human being. It’s now time to remove those wrongdoings from our everyday lives and we need help to ensure that we completely remove our shortcomings and don’t continue to fall victim to any of addiction’s ill effects.

Working Step Seven

To humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings, it’s helpful to organize our thoughts and prepare ourselves for the challenge at hand. Listed below are questions that can help you fully work Step Seven:

• What shortcomings are the most difficult for you to give up?
• In what order do you plan on giving them up?
• What situations, triggers or pressures can cause you to revert back to your character defects?
• What can you do that can relieve some of that stress or pressure to avoid reverting back to your defects of character?
• What makes you lose hope for your recovery? Can you avoid those situations? How?
• Is there a person, situation, or event that restores your hope for recovery? Is there a way you can maximize those influences? How?
• Describe in detail what you think your life will be like without your shortcomings:
• What are you grateful for?
• What do you think that you can do to leave the world a better place?

Step Seven for the Non-Believer

Sometimes addicts feel like their non-belief will hold them back in Step Seven. While the step specifically asks us to ask God to remove our shortcomings – in which many recovering addicts find having a faith in God helpful – as an addict that’s ready and willing to reach addiction recovery, you have the power to state aloud the shortcomings you wish to remove and move forward in working Step Seven.

For some people, understanding that they have defects of character that need to be removed and stating aloud that they want to remove these shortcomings is enough to make significant progress.

It’s important to keep in mind that merely asking for your shortcomings to be removed doesn’t automatically take them away. Overall, you should continually remind yourself of your shortcomings, pay attention on whether they pop up again or not, and work vigorously on removing them again if they do come back—progress not perfection.

For more information on working the 12 Steps please refer back to our blog series or call to start a drug rehab program that will work the steps with you. Recovery is possible!