Indeed, the attainment of  greater humility is the founda-
	tion principle of  each of  A.A.’s Twelve Steps. For without 
	some degree of  humility, no alcoholic can stay sober at all. 
	Nearly all A.A.’s have found, too, that unless they develop 
	much more of  this precious quality than may be required 
	just for sobriety, they still haven’t much chance of  becoming
	truly happy. Without it, they cannot live to much useful 
	purpose, or, in adversity, be able to summon the faith that 
	can meet any emergency. (Page 70)  

Humility is not well thought of or understood, either by the world at large or by alcoholics in particular. Many people have a sense of pride in man's material achievement, and believe that after satisfying all our primary instincts there will be nothing to fight about. A.A.'s have no argument with those who "passionately cling to the belief that to satisfy our basic natural desires is the main object of life. But we are sure that no class of people in the world ever made a worse mess of trying to live by this formula than alcoholics. For thousands of years we have been demanding more than our share of security, prestige, and romance." (Page 71) This sentiment reflects earlier Step Four and Step Six language in the Twelve and Twelve to the effect that our defects stem from excessive instincts which extend beyond their normal range. We have previously observed that the Twelve and Twelve's mention of excessive instincts has supplanted, but largely covers the same ground as, the Big Book's use of Self-will in Steps Three and Four. We now see these defects equated with a lack of humility: "In all these strivings, so many of them well-intentioned, our crippling handicap had been our lack of humility. We had lacked the perspective to see that character-building and spiritual values had to come first, and that material satisfactions were not the purpose of living." (Page 71) The different terms used are not contradictory, and can even be seen as complimenting each other.

The author discusses character-building, a concept introduced in the last chapter on Step Six. Good character and proper displays of morality were often used as ways to get what we wanted. We often confused the means with the ends. "Seldom did we look at character-building as something desirable in itself, something we would like to strive for whether our instinctual needs were met or not. We never thought of making honesty, tolerance, and true love of man and God the daily basis of living." (Page 72) Living on a basis of primarily satisfying our instinctual needs and desires, lacking any permanent values leads to a bad result. "For just so long as we were convinced that we could live exclusively by our own individual strength and intelligence, for just that long was a working faith in a Higher Power impossible... As long as we placed self-reliance first, a genuine reliance upon a Higher Power was out of the question. That basic ingredient of all humility, a desire to seek and do God’s will, was missing." (Page 72)

Alcoholics are often introduced to humility through painful experience, and forced to learn about it in this way. "It was only at the end of a long road, marked by successive defeats and humiliations, and the final crushing of our self-sufficiency, that we began to feel humility as something more than a condition of groveling despair." (Page 72) This is yet another way in which we benefit from the desperation and suffering from our drinking days. The humility we learn in admitting our powerlessness over alcohol, we learn, is necessary and beneficial, but this is just a beginning. "...[T]o be willing to work for humility as something to be desired for itself, takes most of us a long, long time. A whole lifetime geared to self-centeredness cannot be set in reverse all at once." (Page 73) We see here a more explicit connection made between self-centeredness/self-will terminology from the Big Book and the current discussion of humility, as we have just observed.

We are under "heavy pressure and coercion" to come to grips with our character defects (lack of humility, excessive instincts or self-will) in order to prevent a retreat into alcoholism. "But when we have taken a square look at some of these defects, have discussed them with another, and have become willing to have them removed [i.e., having worked Steps Four, Five and Six], our thinking about humility commences to have a wider meaning." (Page 74) At this point we are likely to have been granted some relief from our worst defects. Instead of constant excitement, depression and anxiety, we sometimes have real peace of mind (We are reminded of one of the Ninth Step Promises: "We will comprehend the word serenity and know peace"). This immediately apparent improvement in our condition leads to what could be called several Twelve and Twelve Seventh Step Promises:

	This improved perception of humility starts another 
	revolutionary change in our outlook. Our eyes begin to
 	open to the immense values which have come straight out of painful
 	ego-puncturing... 


	[I]n A.A., we looked and listened. Everywhere we
	saw failure and misery transformed by humility into priceless
	assets. We heard story after story of how humility had
	brought strength out of weakness. In every case, pain had
	been the price of admission into a new life. But this adm-
	ission price had purchased more than we expected. It
	brought a measure of humility, which we soon discovered
	to be a healer of pain. We began to fear pain less, and desire
	humility more than ever. (Page 74-75)  

A further result, and the most profound according to the author, is a change in our attitude toward God - both for believers and former non-believers. We begin to get over the idea of self-sufficiency and begin to rely on God more: "The notion that we would still live our own lives, God helping a little now and then, began to evaporate... Refusing to place God first, we had deprived ourselves of His help." (Page 75)

We discover that humility "could come quite as much from our voluntary reaching for it as it could from unremitting suffering. A great turning point in our lives came when we sought for humility as something we really wanted, rather than as something we must have." (Page 75) This statement of a positive goal - as opposed to cleaning up the past - echoes an overriding consideration we have previously seen in the Twelve and Twelve's Step Six discussion. The emphasis on growth and improvement in these Steps may indicate that together they are themselves a turning point of sorts in the Program of Recovery. This idea of transitioning from dire necessity to spiritual aspiration will be repeated later in the Twelve and Twelve. (Tradition Nine, Page 174) The author states that when we have reached the point of seeking humility for its own sake we see the full implications of Step Seven: “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” This is the first explicit mention of the Step itself since the opening paragraph, and is the only explicit mention of prayer in the entire chapter.

We are asked to examine our motives in the actual taking of Step Seven. Reflecting two of the Ninth Step Promises, the authors writes that we certainly want peace and assurance that the grace of God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He repeats Fourth Step language in stating that our path to these objectives are blocked by character defects and that we have been making unreasonable demands of ourselves, of others and of God. "The chief activator of our defects has been self-centered fear— primarily fear that we would lose something we already possessed or would fail to get something we demanded." (Page 76) Unful and peace was impossible until we reduced these demands. It should be noted here that this statement on fear provides a somewhat different emphasis than the Big Book, which calls resentment the "number one offender" and that it "destroys more alcoholics than anything else." (Step Four, Page 64) The Big Book, however, does suggest a second inventory devoted to fear, and calls it an "evil and corroding thread". (Page 67) Step Four here in the Twelve and Twelve also emphasizes fear over resentment (Page 48-49)

As with every Step in the Twelve and Twelve, we see a brief summary in the conclusion. There is also the added encouragement that if the humility we acquired when we admitted powerlessness over alcohol and come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity could enable our deadly obsession to be banished, then "there must be hope of the same result respecting any other problem we could possibly have." (Page 76)

There is no mention of a sponsor in this chapter. This may be because taking this Step is seen as strictly between a Higher Power and the alcoholic.