Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

STEP TWELVE

circumstances happened to be good, we no longer dread-
ed a change for the worse, for we had learned that these
troubles could be turned into great values. It did not mat-
ter too much what our material condition was, but it did
matter what our spiritual condition was. Money gradually
became our servant and not our master. It became a means
of exchanging love and service with those about us. When,
with God's help, we calmly accepted our lot, then we found
we could live at peace with ourselves and show others who
still suffered the same fears that they could get over them,
too. We found that freedom from fear was more important
than freedom from want.

Let's here take note of our improved outlook upon the
problems of personal importance, power, ambition, and
leadership. These were reefs upon which many of us came
to shipwreck during our drinking careers.

Practically every boy in the United States dreams of be-
coming our President. He wants to be his country's num-
ber one man. As he gets older and sees the impossibility of
this, he can smile good-naturedly at his childhood dream.
In later life he finds that real happiness is not to be found
in just trying to be a number one man, or even a first-rater
in the heartbreaking struggle for money, romance, or self-
importance. He learns that he can be content as long as he
plays well whatever cards life deals him. He's still ambi-
tious, but not absurdly so, because he can now see and ac-
cept actual reality. He's willing to stay right size.

But not so with alcoholics. When A.A. was quite young,
a number of eminent psychologists and doctors made
an exhaustive study of a good-sized group of so-called