OA Comparison of the 12 Steps & 12 Traditions

[MajestyJo]

12 Steps & 12 Traditions Comparison Writing Questions

Received this from a friend. It is written for OA and yet it also reads very well when you put in AA, NA, Al-Anon or Nar-Anon into the translation.

The Twelve Steps of OA The Twelve Traditions of OA

Question(s) Comparing the Step and the Traditions

1. We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable.

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon OA unity.

How has the unmanageability in your life due to your compulsive overeating caused disunity in your personal relationships? In what ways have you changed since realizing the unmanageable aspect in your life and has that realization caused more unity in your work, personal
relationships and in OA?

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

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

In what ways have you become a trusted servant after being restored to sanity?

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

3. The only requirement for OA membership is a desire to stop eating compulsively.

Do you have the desire to stop eating compulsively by having turned your will and life over to the care of a Higher Power, as you understand a Higher Power?

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

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or OA as a whole.

How has completing the 4th Step inventory allowed you to be autonomous in your life without affecting your OA group/work/home/social life?

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the compulsive overeater who still suffers.

Having done a 5th Step, what are some of the ways doing this step has allowed you to become more aware of the primary purpose of carrying the message to others?

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

6. An OA group ought never endorse, finance or lend the OA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and
prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

Where has the insight of understanding your character defects led you to lose sight of the primary purpose of carrying the message by allowing problems of money, property and prestige diverting you from the primary purpose of carrying the message to those who still suffer from the disease of compulsive overeating?

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

7. Every OA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

In what ways has your understanding of humility allowed you to be more generous to your family, your favorite charitable organizations and to the fellowship of Overeaters Anonymous?

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make
amends to them all.

8. Overeaters Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

By becoming willing to make amends, do we owe an amends to any OA service body for holding ourselves out to be professional "OA-ers?" Have we allowed other OA members to take the lead and held them out as OA "professionals?"

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

9. OA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

While doing the actual amends as suggested by the 9th Step are there organizations besides OA and work situations in which we have been suspicious of those we have chosen to be our trusted servant and how do we make amends to those individuals?

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

10. Overeaters Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the OA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

In taking our 10th Step inventory and admitting our mistakes, have we looked at how we have allowed ourselves to have strong opinions and have drawn others and ourselves into public controversy?

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television and other public media of communication.

Step 11 requires each of us to improve our conscious contact with a Power greater than ourselves through prayer and meditation. How have we used this step to assist us practicing the 11th Tradition by being an attraction for the program while maintaining our anonymity at the
level of press, radio, films, television and other public media of communication?

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive overeaters and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all these Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

How are we able to carry this message to other people while practicing these principles in all our affairs being reminded to place principles before personalities?

[MajestyJo]

Sometimes, because they are not known, they are rejected out of hand. That is why we need the open mind. It doesn't matter what substance you use, it all leads to the same soul sickness. As I have shared before, the common denominator between the different fellowships, is the Steps and the Traditions.

As a speaker once said, "I had to learn to live the Traditions in order to live long enough to work the Steps.

The Traditions are for the group, yet I have found that they made life much easier when I practiced them at home and at work.

[MajestyJo]

So grateful for the woman who I heard in early recovery say, "I had to learn to live the Traditions to live long enough to work the Steps.