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The Twelve Promises

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.

The Twelve Promises

  1. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
  2. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
  3. We will comprehend the word serenity.
  4. We will know peace.
  5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
  6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
  7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
  8. Self-seeking will slip away.
  9. Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change.
  10. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.
  11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
  12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.

-Woody W., Derived from the AA “Big Book”, pp. 83-84.

NOTE: One will not actually find “Twelve Promises” listed in the Big Book, and these promises are not officially OA Conference Approved, as they represent an individual interpretation of the Big Book.  However, many serious students of the Big Book and the Twelve Steps have looked at these pages and found a set of promises, promises of benefits to be derived from earnestly working the Twelve Step Program. There have been a number of interpretations of how these promises should be stated, with the above being one of the more popular interpretations. It would seem obvious that “twelve” is a fitting number with which to present these promises, in honor of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.

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