Sobriety Breakthrough: Take the Twelve Steps in One Day

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Hello, and welcome to the Call Her Cat podcast, the show dedicated to honest conversations

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about addiction, recovery, and finding the strength to break the cycle.

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I'm your host, Cat York, and this is where we get real about the messy, complex, and

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often unspoken truth of what it means to heal.

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If you're working to redefine your story, searching for a connection, or simply need

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to know you're not alone, you've come to the right place.

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My mission is to hold space for the raw, direct stories of people who have walked this path.

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We dive into the personal battles and the profound lessons learned along the way.

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Before we begin, a quick disclaimer.

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The views expressed in this podcast are those of the host and the guests.

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This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be professional

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or medical advice.

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Please consult a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation.

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Today we have the privilege of speaking to John Merkel, a recovery coach and author of

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Sobriety Breakthrough, Years of Recovery Progress in One Day.

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Since 1997, John has been leading workshops where he takes newly sober alcoholics through

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the 12 steps in a single day.

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That's nearly 30 years of real-world experience watching what newcomers gain traction and

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what keeps them stuck.

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His book is a 12-step workbook built on that experience, an interactive, day-long guide

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designed to give newcomers a powerful jumpstart when it matters most.

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Today we're going to talk about what early sobriety looks like, the traps that derail

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so many, and why taking action in recovery, not just attending meetings, makes all the

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difference.

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John, welcome.

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Thank you, Cat.

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It's great to be here.

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Did I miss anything?

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Is there anything you want to add?

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No, I think that was pretty thorough.

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All right.

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So sobriety, speaking of my own experience, sobriety was very tricky coming into the rooms,

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just even knowing where to start.

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It's so easy to get derailed.

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There's so much going on, like inside and where do you start?

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What do you do?

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What are some of the...

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Could you talk about some of those hurdles that newcomers face, like early in sobriety?

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Well, thank you, Cat.

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I appreciate that.

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There is the situation which I believe is responsible for the large number of people

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who are newly sober and don't make it.

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I think the numbers are scary.

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However, with a little bit of important direction early on, I believe that good quality recovery

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is available.

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There's this thing, I call it the trap.

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And the trap, from my perspective, is that contrast between your drinking career and

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your life in recovery, that early recovery, it seems like you start going to meetings,

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you're not drinking, you're learning a lingo and all that.

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And yet, right there, it feels different.

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It feels so different from your drinking career that it's easy to fall into the trap.

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And the trap is, I feel like I'm doing recovery just because I'm not drinking and I'm going

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to meetings.

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And so there's complacency sets in.

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So that's what I think is the common early experience in recovery.

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It's like, hey, here I am, I'm really doing my stuff.

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But it's not really enough.

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That's what I believe.

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And I heard when I first started in recovery, newcomers hit what's called like a pink cloud.

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You know, the fog is lifting, so to speak.

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You know, you're meeting new people, you're feeling good about yourself, your life's starting

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to come back together.

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But at some point, a lot of people hit like a plateau, or they stall.

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Personally, I stalled around the beginning of the 12 steps, you know, because it's one

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thing to go to meetings and talk and read the book, but the steps can really trip a

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lot of people up.

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Why do you think there's that stall to start and go to the next level?

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The stall happens because it's very difficult to wrap your head around exactly what it's

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going to take to bring about the psychic change, the psychic change that's talked

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about in the doctor's opinion.

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So with such clarity, the psychic changes described, it's like, that's the thing that's

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like, all of a sudden you walked into a new world.

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But it can, that pink cloud happens because, okay, I'm not spending money like a drunken

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sailor.

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I'm, like, I'm learning all the lingo, I'm going to meetings, I'm feeling better about

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myself.

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And because addiction in itself, from my perspective, starts out with comfort chasing.

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And so it's the comfort chasing that sort of builds upon itself and pretty soon, we're

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just all about comfort chasing.

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Not much has changed when you start going to meetings, you still, the alcoholic still

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doesn't want to, like, embrace the discomfort of doing the steps.

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And that fear, that common kind of syndrome of chasing comfort can put a barrier between

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you and what it actually takes to bring about that psychic change.

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And would you say that's, that crosses territory of observing recovery and participating in

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it, and like actively being recovered?

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It's spilled out, I think, very well in the, in one sentence, I think it's the most important

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sentence in all of AA literature.

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And it's one sentence in the forward to the 12 and 12 that is the most succinct description

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of what you need to know about the 12 steps.

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That the 12 steps are a set of principles, spiritual in nature, which if practiced as

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a way of life can expel the obsession and enable the sufferer to become happily and

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usefully whole.

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Well, the operative word there is practice.

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Yeah.

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You know, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob did not just start going to meetings.

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There were no meetings.

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They didn't just stop drinking.

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They started practicing what they discovered.

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They started practicing by taking others through the steps.

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The practice is what brings about that psychic change.

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Now if you're new and you ask somebody that has some quality sobriety, I mean, you, this

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is like a practice that you can do.

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You can say, Hey, you know, you'd go to a meeting and you see somebody and it's pretty

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clear they've got some quality sobriety, smiling, they're joking, they're laughing, they're

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comfortable in their own skin.

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And you're facing the discomfort of having to do this work, which you don't really understand

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and don't have any experience.

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But you ask a few people, Hey, was all that work worth it?

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Was it worth it?

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I mean, you seem like you got good sobriety.

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And I think to a person, they're going to say, yes.

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It was worth it.

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It is worth it.

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But you highlighted a good point, which is comfort.

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A lot of alcoholics seek recovery for comfort.

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They've lost a lot.

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They didn't get there like on their best day, you know what I mean?

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You didn't get there on a winning streak most times.

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And so you have a book called Sobriety Breakthrough, Years of Recovery, Progress in One Day.

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What was the catalyst for that book?

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The thing is, when I started leading workshops for recovering alcoholics, I noticed that

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it wasn't the discussing of the steps.

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It wasn't reading the steps that makes any difference.

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You can sit in step studies for years or go to a 12 and 12 meeting per year, and you can

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read and study and discuss.

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But until the action of taking comes about, then the progress seems delayed because the

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illusion that I'm reading about the steps and I'm discussing the steps is taking the

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steps is such a comfort.

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It's like, OK, I'm doing it.

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I'm doing recovery.

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It's kind of challenging to realize that it's where the pen hits the paper.

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It's the taking.

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It's the sharing with another recovering alcoholic.

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It's actually the doing that the practice that does it.

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Because your book is a it's a partner book.

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It's not just, you know, me sitting down, doing it by myself.

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And do you think that helps the newcomer sitting down with another newcomer to?

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Yeah.

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Ken, I don't think anybody gets sober alone, though, you could you could sit in your room

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and you get a Ph.D. and A.A., but until you work with another alcoholic, until you until

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you engage, I call it the doing and sharing.

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It's the two things that are that are in every section of the book.

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There's doing what you do in silence and in private and then immediately share.

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And it's in that process that that it it begins to gel.

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It begins to take effect.

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So, yeah, I believe it's it's it's that action.

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And.

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There's there's few people.

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That that willingly or.

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Just want to embrace it at that level, but what you may not realize is it's always easier

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than it seems it's going to be.

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Yeah, yeah, there's there's parts of another words.

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I break it down into very little bite sized chunks so that somebody can have a direct

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and immediate experience in one day and feel the effect of taking, for instance, a fourth

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and fifth step are very scary to newcomers.

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And the whole idea of listing everything out is is overwhelming.

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But when it's broken down to like one little bite sized bit, and the reason that that works

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really well is because.

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For instance, resentments, all your resentments have one thing in common, you.

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So if you solve if you solve the the mysteries about one resentment in your life, it opens

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the window, it illuminates the answers to virtually all the other ones, because they

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all have you in common.

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That's why I like breaking it down and I don't like stretching it out.

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I don't like these.

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I mean, there's a time and a place because taking steps is a lifetime process.

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So there's a time and a place to get into a 12 week or 26 week step study and engage

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with people. But if you're new and you haven't taken the steps, I highly recommend that you

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take the steps as quickly as possible.

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There are people that I mean.

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There's these.

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Slogans that are that are very, very misleading in AA.

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Yeah, don't drink and go to meeting, just don't drink and go to meetings.

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Old timer will say it.

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Possibly an old timer who's never taken the steps, who just goes to meetings and, you know,

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hangs out in in the AA hall and doesn't take the steps.

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But if you if you fall into that misbelief or the misunderstanding that all you have to do is not

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drink and go to meetings, then you you're on the slippery slope of relapse.

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The newcomer is so close to relapse.

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It's like it's almost like the exception.

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If somebody makes it to being newly sober to quality sobriety and in the being a spectator in

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AA is the most risky behavior that a sober alcoholic can do.

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Spectator just watching, doesn't know what to do, afraid to engage, hasn't maybe has a sponsor and doesn't use them.

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But, you know, I broke it down so that two brand new alcoholics that don't know anything can pick it up, pick up the book.

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And take the 12 steps in one day, so they'll they'll not only have an experience, not academic, experiential.

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They'll have an experiential session that that delivers more epiphanies, insights and real perspective than you're just going to get being in the stands.

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Yeah, yeah, because you highlighted something that's important, you know, the relapse rate in AA is very high.

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You know, it's very high because it is a big program. It is a big program. And you also highlighted something that some people do. They just don't drink and they go to meetings.

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Now, what is the downfall of just not drinking and going to meetings? Say you go to two meetings every day. You're not drinking. You still have your life on track. You're not losing your home, your marriage. What is the downfall to not doing the steps?

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It's the illusion that you're in recovery. That's the problem. You think you're in recovery because you're doing all that. You're doing new things. It's far different than your drinking career and that illusion that you're in recovery.

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And you're working with a sponsor because you call and talk about finances and romances and all that. These things are just an illusion. That's not the real deal. That's not what Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob did in the beginning that worked so well that they effectively changed the world for millions of people.

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What they did, what they got into action. So, yeah, it scares me. In fact, that was the whole reason for the book. Just knowing, like, I could only do so much in my own hometown.

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I led meetings for many years, these one-day, 12-step meetings. But I couldn't reach outside of my own community very effectively. And so now I wanted to move into a direction to be more on purpose. I'm getting old.

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And if there's something that I can do, if there's something that I know about early recovery, about if I kind of know the secret sauce that helps newly sober alcoholics get on track and experience, like, a perspective and experience, like, something by doing that encourages me to do more.

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So, yeah, that's the reason that I'm here. It pains me to think that somebody's like, you think, well, this isn't working for me. Or I just don't get it. I've been going to meetings, you know, that whole thing about, well, you know, I'm coming up on 90 days.

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Or one time I had two years, but now I'm just coming back. There's all this calendar kind of consideration. Like, it's often that the newcomer might believe that there's some mystical thing that's going to happen in two years.

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Or when I get five, I can't wait to get five years. Nothing's going to happen in five years. There's nothing going to happen in five years. However, there's a lot can happen in five days.

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Yeah.

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When you're proactive in recovery, your vision of yourself changes. You're not somebody that's trying to get sober. You're living a life of sobriety.

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You're actually helping someone else. And you help somebody else, and now they look at you differently. And that feels good. That's nice. You help somebody. And then they take and they go help somebody. And it grows like that's the way AA started.

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And we can get back to the roots of just taking the steps. You know, there's stories about Dr. Bob about how the thousands of people he took through the steps in 10 years. You don't do that by doing it in a 26-week program. You don't take lots of people through the steps. And so here's people who changed lives.

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And you highlighted something that I think is important. Because AA started out as just one alcoholic helping another. And something that was hard for me or discouraging for me when I entered was you sit down and you shut up, you have nothing to offer.

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That's what I was told is where I was at. And you're already not feeling great. I already wasn't feeling great. Now you have nothing to say. But that's a very dangerous slope too, to not speak, to not talk.

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And so what I like about your book is that it is one alcoholic helping another. You know, and like you said, you get to see the difference in yourself and whoever you're working with.

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And it overcomes one of those pitfalls of newcomer does not have anything to offer. That I think is my, this is my personal opinion, a big pitfall of welcoming a newcomer in and saying, don't talk.

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You know, and it gets back to I think what like the kind of the grassroots of what AA is, is just one alcoholic helping another. And so what do you think we can do more, not even just like in the recovery rooms, but like in general to help out a newcomer in sobriety?

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Here's what I think about that.

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The desperation that you walk into AA with is a gift. And you can use that. If you're feeling totally like a train wreck, and that desperation, that desire to get out of the mess you've made of your life, that desire is a gift.

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And especially when you're early, you can use the power of that desperation to just jump right in. I want it so bad that I'm willing to do whatever it takes. If you've got that, then you've got what it takes. So sit down and shut up is not relevant. It's like, oh boy, you are desperate. Perfect. Here's what you can do.

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Take what you have. Because, you know, the feelings, we try to escape them. But we can use them. And if the newcomer allows their desperation to dissipate without taking full advantage of the desperation, they have missed a vital opportunity.

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Because your passion and enthusiasm to get well can be used immediately, not in 90 days. You don't have to wait a year, six months. You don't have to wait that. You can just jump in like both feet right away.

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So think about it. Let's say the homeless Harry walks into a meeting, and he hears a message of hope. And he grabs on to the whole thing and says, wow, anybody else want to like, you know, wrap around this and run with it? And there's like, you know, some other, you know, under the bridge Betty goes, yeah.

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I do. Let's do it. You know, and they just jump into it right away. And then everybody else in the meeting, even the old curmudgeons that just say just don't drink and go to meetings. Even those people go, whoa, look at these two. They're on fire.

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And the next thing you know, they look different. Everybody can see it. They look different because they've worked on their insides. And like is often said in meetings, when you fix your insides, your outsides will manifest the condition of your inner self.

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So you work on your insides, do the steps. That's it. That's a way to say that. You work on your insides. And I would recommend just go at it. Go at it full tilt.

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Take the steps to the best of your ability, whether you use my book or something else. You take the steps to the best of your ability and do the work. Is that going to be uncomfortable? Yeah. Yes, it's going to. But you know, discomfort isn't the enemy.

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It's like the doorway. You walk through the doorway of discomfort and surprise, surprise. It's not as near as bad as you thought. And the epiphanies, insights, and perspectives that you gained that day will make a difference.

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No, sit down, shut up's not it. It's like jump in, both feet. Get at it. Because if you're alcoholic, the cool thing is, it's a disease for which there's a really great solution for.

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This lifestyle that was designed by Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson, such a gift to alcoholics because they just spelled it out. Here it is. And it works. So, yeah, I'm a big believer. There's no reason to wait. I can't imagine.

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In nearly 30 years of leading one day step studies, I never saw anybody that couldn't get it. The expression I like the most about that is recovery is not for those that want it. It's not for those that need it. Recovery is for people who do it.

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And the smallest amount of doing can have such a marvelous impact on the person, like straight away, that they'll be amazed. And then desperation will turn into passion and enthusiasm.

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And I like your book. I like it a lot because I had a friend come over and we worked through it a little bit. And I wanted to kind of put myself back into the seat of a newcomer.

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Because I found, I was one of those people who was terrified of doing the steps, because it is very intimidating when you read the steps as long as they are and as expanded as they are. And the 12 and 12 is very big. It's very thick with language.

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You know, you break it down so it's not so intimidating. It's not so, oh my god, like, you know, it's not so. Because when you're first coming in, you are so rattled. You know, you are so rattled that some people, you know, like, how do you spell your name? I don't know. You know, it's like, you're just so. And so when we're sitting down, my friend, we're going through like, this makes sense because it's broken down into bits and pieces.

224
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And when you are organizing a workshop, you know, what does the workshop look like? Can you kind of run us through like what that workshop looks like?

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And the book is set up so anybody can lead a workshop. I mean, like, straight away, first day, don't even open it. Just say, I'm leading a workshop. And then you open the book right then and there. There's no preparation required. But what a workshop looks like.

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And the one I most recently did is I just have every, there's no PowerPoint or anything, nothing like that. You don't need, you don't need any technology whatsoever.

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Do you have coffee? Is there a lot of coffee?

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So you need like 12 sheets of paper and a pencil and a book. That's it. And sharing partners. So you can invite, you could say, hey, I'm having a workshop and invite as many people as you can fit in the venue, whatever it is.

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And if everybody has a book, 12 sheets of paper and something to write with, and there are sharing partners established before the meeting started, then that's it. That's good. And then you just open up and you start like right then and there.

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So this particular sobriety breakthrough workshop runs about four and a half hours. If you jump into it and you take the breaks and do everything, it's four and a half hours. I say one day, but, you know, it's better to, and so you just do it.

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Now, it doesn't really need to be facilitated, but it can be facilitated because somebody's got to go, okay, you know, after the break, come back in, let's go back in and do the next section.

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But if you know right off the bat that it just takes 12 sheets of paper, and it just takes sharing partners, and it just takes a place where you can have some, where you're free from distractions.

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I have everybody turn their phone off. You can turn it back on during your break and check your messages or whatever, but I just say, let's power down that so that we can focus. Lives are at stake, so let's focus.

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So it's very, very easy to do. Even easier, I suppose, if you want, if you got a flat screen TV and you get a copy of the ebook, just shoot it up on the flat screen TV. I mean, there's many ways to do it.

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And then you just want to have an agreement that, you know, whatever happens here stays here, and that you agree to just stay focused on what we're doing just for this one, basically, half a day.

236
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That's all that's needed. There isn't anything more than that. After leading workshops for a long time, for decades, I got it down to the simplest possible common denominators.

237
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Now, there's some parts to the book that are kind of cool, if you don't mind. There's an introduction, and there's a description, like, in there, just exactly how, just exactly how to lead a meeting. I mean, there's your basic, right there.

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Who would be a good sharing partner? How to pick a sharing partner? Then I tell you exactly how to do it, what you need. In other words, set it up, and then we go into the fundamental parts of the big book, and in kind of an experiential way.

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I take a paragraph out of the doctor's opinion and then personalize it. There's a section in there about the seven levels of sobriety, so that the idea is when you review the seven levels of sobriety, that helps you map your journey.

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You can identify where you are and what the different stages are and what they're like, and what the ultimate goals are. Like, when you look at the difference between level one and level seven, now you have a description of the kind of life that you're going to have when you do the steps, when you take the steps.

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Yeah.

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I do.

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And again, you're not at all saying this replaces a 12-week or 26-week in-depth step program. This is just to see an immediate change, get some relief, and to keep going on with recovery. It's not to replace anything. It's just like a support.

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I believe that the 12 steps is a lifelong process, and there'll be many different ways that you take the steps in your life, many different practices. However, because of the extreme failure rate of newly sober alcoholics, I believe that the most important thing is getting off to a great start, to get some fundamentals down.

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Not just academically, but to have an experience that no one can take away from you. Once you've experienced the benefits, the insights, understandings of taking the steps, that carries. That's got legs. That's far different than being a spectator.

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It's the fundamental, what I have believed. I've come to believe that that's the most important thing for a newly sober alcoholic. Get a great start without delay. Don't wait. It's not 30 days or six months or anything like that. Oh yeah, nothing's going to happen because of the passage of time.

247
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What's a good piece of advice or suggestion that you would offer to somebody, a newcomer, just beginning down this road of sobriety?

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I think it's very important to face your fears. For instance, pay attention. What comes up for you when you think about going to a new meeting?

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Understand that your instincts kind of work against you. For instance, because comfort is so important, understand that if you drive past the old pub where you used to hang out, there's a comfort level associated with that.

250
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It's very easy to walk in there or to go see one of your old drinking buddies. That doesn't key up some instincts that are uncomfortable.

251
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However, the very thing that would be really good for you to go to a new meeting, to go to a meeting you've never been to before, to walk up to a sponsor or a potential sponsor, or to talk to another alcoholic, these things that are new and unfamiliar, they might be the very healthiest thing you could possibly do for your recovery, for your life, for your family.

252
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They feel uncomfortable. And just know that those things that feel uncomfortable, look a little closer. Is that the very thing I should be doing? Should I just walk right into that fire?

253
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You drive toward the meeting and it's like, I don't feel good walking in there. That's probably the best thing you can do. Let people know who you are. Become part of. Build a community.

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Because after some time goes by, those people that you meet, those meetings that you go to, you get yourself a home group where you can do some service work. You sit in a meeting and you hear somebody. If you don't have a sponsor, I suggest you go to the next meeting you can find close to your house or in a Zoom meeting.

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Just go. And then if you don't have a sponsor, you just listen and you kind of make a mental note. Who sounds really good? Probably the same gender as you. Who sounds really good? And then say, hey, would you message them or walk up to them after the meeting and say, look, I'm new. Would you be willing to work with me?

256
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Yeah, so if you're feeling the desperation, you use it. You get a where and when or you go to the meeting app and you find all the meetings. Maybe you print it out. That might be good. Print out the meeting schedule in your hometown or in your area.

257
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And then go to as many of the meetings as fast as you can. Don't wait. You do that and before long, you find your home group and you'll find your sponsor.

258
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And you know, somebody might allow themselves to not ask a potential sponsor to work with them. Because, well, I don't want to start something. I don't know. I don't know. Well, with a sponsor, you don't have to worry.

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You can say to your new temporary sponsor or anybody or the sponsor you have is like, hey, I really appreciate what you've done for me, but I'm going to work with George now. So thanks. It was great. I'm going to work with George. No harm, no foul. The cool thing about AA is no guilt, no shame. You almost can't do anything wrong.

260
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So the sponsor that you worked with for two weeks will say, great. Have a blast. Good luck. George was a great guy. Probably say something like that and you're on. And the jumping in with both feet, going to lots of meetings, talking to lots of people that sound like they've got good recovery, that's cool.

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It is cool. What is it like for you in these workshops when you see like a light bulb go off, when you see like the change happen, you know, when you see like aha moments or like, you know, you like the face, you know, the face and you're just like, oh, like, you know, or I can do this like this is attainable. This is achievable for me. You know, what is that like for you?

262
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There's almost nothing better in the world to participate in someone else's recovery because we're talking life or death.

263
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So lives pivot on epiphanies. You have an epiphany and that's it. It's like, oh, oh, the realization dawns on someone about, wow, that, there it is. That's, there's the missing piece. There's part of the puzzle. There's a, there's an, there's a new understanding.

264
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So for me as a workshop facilitator, there's probably nothing better. I mean, yeah, I like it. I really like seeing it a lot.

265
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Thanks. That was a great question.

266
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Do you ever get, I'm curious, people who follow up with you many months down the road about their, how they're still doing a story of their success. Do you ever get that?

267
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Absolutely. Oh, my gosh. You know, one of the, one of the guys that, that I went through the material with, he worked at a local rehab and he just took the ball and ran with it.

268
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So he was the, he was the guy that did like the first week orientation. One of the things he did was the first week orientation and he started, he, he broke down sobriety breakthrough for the, for, he broke it up for the first five days and, and it was exciting because prior to that, according to him, they didn't have a, an introduction to taking the 12 steps.

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And he gave us many aha moments, but he, he expressed how much he loved to see the newcomer go, Oh my gosh. Yes.

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So, yeah, that, that was really cool.

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He wrote a nice review on Amazon as a result of that experience and it's like right in there and it's, it's, it's really remarkable.

272
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Now, when it comes to like to running these workshops, because you have your website sobriety breakthrough, are they workshops that are specifically run through you? Or is it like, are they run in different rehabs or different?

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There, there are rehabs that, that do them and, and I run them from time to time in a variety of locations. I'm looking to do Zoom meetings soon or, or YouTube meetings soon, but I haven't started that yet.

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Right.

275
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But the cool thing is, you don't, you know, when I'm going into a workshop, I have this awareness that part of my responsibility when I'm leading a workshop with sobriety breakthrough is to reinforce the idea that you don't need me.

276
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Right.

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That, you know, for 10 bucks, you can go get a ebook and run it right away. You don't need me to do it.

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Right.

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I like doing it. I love doing it.

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And, and I'll probably continue to do it in workshops around the country and sober cruises or, or, or events.

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I will continue to do it. But the important thing to me is that you don't need me to do it. That, that's how the book was created.

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Do you think part of, part of your accelerated program with another newcomer working with another newcomer is it gets them used to working with another alcoholic? It gets them used to working with a sponsor? So there isn't that some of that intimidation is, is removed a little bit?

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It's almost magical.

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It's almost magical when you work with someone else with a common goal to recover from this deadly disease of alcoholism.

285
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There's a real magic. So when you select a partner to work with, you want to be sure, like, I don't recommend that you talk to people who are still drinking or people who are not committed to recovery.

286
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It doesn't, and you can take your sponsor through this. I mean, but it doesn't matter.

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How.

288
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No, let me rephrase that. What matters is how much they want it.

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If you have a strong heartfelt desire, whether it comes from desperation or that you just want to rebuild your family and your career and your health and all that, doesn't matter where the motivation comes from.

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But if you have a sufficient desire to overcome alcoholism, you simply need to find someone else that has that same desire.

291
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That's all that's necessary. Doesn't matter how much sobriety they have. Although I would not try to take somebody who's still in their cups, still and still active.

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I wouldn't, I wouldn't try to do it because it's not the right, it's not the right focus.

293
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Right.

294
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When there's an alignment on the desire, then, then there's real magic as possible.

295
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And to be clear, you're not, this is not something that you're going to go through, like, you know, when you're still drinking, it's something that you have to, you still have to take work. Don't let accelerated confuse you that it's not going to take work. It's still going to take work.

296
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It's going to take work.

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And I personally like the book because it makes it, it breaks it down, like I said, piece by piece. So it's a little more digestible. It's a nice, it was, I found it a nice foundation.

298
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I had to abbreviate

299
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a lot of the work so that it could be digested in a day.

300
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True.

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A lifetime of work.

302
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But it's, it's that the whole idea is the good start, getting a great start.

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Because without it, what,

304
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if you delay,

305
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if you're, to the alcoholic that's out there that, that hears this and is not, has not had, like, the insight, understanding the epiphany that they haven't had the psychic change yet, then I would encourage them

306
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to move quickly into step-taking.

307
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Whatever method.

308
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Because there's no benefit for the delay.

309
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If, if you hear somebody say something like, well, you just take one step a year or something, it's like, that's crazy, right? Or there's no reason to wait. Or like, I hear people say, well, oh, I'm not ready for that. It's like,

310
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you're not ready for what? I don't, I don't even understand that because my experience tells me, I've had plenty of people walk in to one of these workshops in their first week.

311
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In their first week of sobriety, somebody says, hey, you want to go to a, a 12-step workshop? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'll do that. I don't know any better. I'll just go. And they go and they go, oh, my God, you know, then boom, light bulb light up.

312
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Yeah, no reason for delay.

313
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And that light bulb going off can, can be the difference so often between, you know, coming back and not coming back.

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315
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The fear is that the desperation that got you in the door dissipates before you take action.

316
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Yeah.

317
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So that would be like my main thing. Don't let the desperation dissipate before you take action. Take action when you really want it. When you see your job going away, or you see your health is failing, your family's leaving you, or you're already alone sitting in a hotel room and you think, oh, God, what am I going to do?

318
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There, there's, there's an understanding around the rooms of AA, and I touched on it, but the whole thing is that when you clean up your insides, your outsides will manifest you're in a condition.

319
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There's no better way for an alcoholic to clean up their insides than step-taking.

320
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Yeah.

321
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That's where it happens.

322
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And you might say, well, I look at this and there's, there's God mentioned and, and not everybody is wants to run into a religious program. And, and I think I dealt with that in, in the best way possible.

323
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To leave it open enough and universal enough that regardless of your, if you have a God problem or you don't have any experience with religion, there, there's no, there's no religion in here.

324
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No.

325
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It's all open. It's completely universal. You take what you have. Maybe you have a traditional faith that's working. Great. Use that.

326
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Right.

327
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Maybe you want to use some new conception that you hadn't considered before. There'll be ideas in there.

328
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Right.

329
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Yeah.

330
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I don't, I don't think it can be underestimated what an undertaking this was to do what you did.

331
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Because the big book is not small. You know, the 12-step book is, is small, but it's, it's not, you know, you, you made it.

332
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It's a lot of work. I just want to acknowledge that this was a lot of work.

333
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That you put into this, this sobriety breakthrough book. It's a lot of work. It looks very simple when you pick it up. It looks very, you know, but I don't want people to be confused. That's a lot of work that you put into this book.

334
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And I think that speaks volumes to you as a recovery coach on what you've seen, what you've witnessed, and your passion for wanting to help the newcomer succeed.

335
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You know, and, and I think that in itself, just making the book is a very powerful message about you. You know, that's what I got out of it because that's, I see that book and that's a lot of work.

336
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That's a lot of work. That's a lot of effort. That's a lot of heart. And I, I love it because, and it was, and it's a, it's a larger print too.

337
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You know, and it makes it very easy to read.

338
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And I highly, I personally recommend it for anyone. New recovery, 10 years of recovery. It's not going to hurt you to pick it up.

339
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You know, I don't, there's, it's only going to benefit you.

340
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You know, and I think, I think if you're in recovery, it's definitely worth picking up.

341
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I'm not going to lose anything. It's always good to have, it's always good to have those reminders in different ways.

342
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You know, you can get, I've met plenty of people in recovery of 20, 30 years and it gets stale sometimes.

343
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You know, they go through the motions. And I think, I haven't talked to anyone about this book that far along in recovery, but I imagine it'd be nice to have it presented in a different way.

344
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You know, I don't think it's, I don't think there's anything lost here.

345
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So thank you for the effort that you put into this book, all your experience as a recovery coach.

346
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I fully imagine all that you've seen, all that you've gone through.

347
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And with that, is there anything you want to leave us with? Any last bit of insight or wisdom?

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Well, I want to thank you for the acknowledgement. And I want to acknowledge my partner, Suzanne.

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I wrote a lot. I rewrote these chapters over and over many, many times.

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And she helped me finally get it to production.

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So, you know, I have a saint in my life that is really good. And encouragement, you know, I appreciate the encouragement I got from my family and my friends in the community.

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And thank you for what you do here, Kat.

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Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.

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Trying to help one less person, you know, struggle a little bit.

355
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It reaches one person. I know it's said a lot, if I help one person, but yeah, that one person has such a ripple effect on so many other people.

356
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I feel that way too. If one person uses this and has an epiphany and their life turns around, my life is complete.

357
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Yeah. And it's a beautiful thing when you see someone recover and their life comes back, they come back on life.

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You know, that's what this is about.

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I want to thank you for taking the time with me today.

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Thank you for sharing your nearly three decades of experience and your insights on moving past the early hurdles and engaging with the 12 steps, intention and speed.

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I believe that this book can be a lifeline for a lot of people.

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And that's just my personal opinion, but I believe it can be a lifeline for a lot of people.

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And if you want to learn more about John and his workshops, you can pick up the Sobriety Breakthrough Workbook or sign up for his newsletter and upcoming events at sobrietybreakthrough.com.

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You can also purchase Sobriety Breakthrough, Years of Recovery Progress in One Day on Amazon.

365
00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:55,360
It's on Kindle too, which is great. Kindle is very helpful.

366
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Thank you so much for tuning in and sticking with me. You can find all the show links, notes and guest information on my Podbean site, which is unityyork.podbean.com.

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It will also be in the show notes as well as how to reach out to John, connect with him.

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And the best way to support the show is by hitting the subscribe button and leaving a positive review.

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I want to thank everyone for listening. I want to thank John again for being here.

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Taking the time to talk with us. And that wraps it up for today.

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You do good work.

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Thank you.