Your Complete Printable PDF Inventory Guide
Recovery is a journey that requires dedication, honesty, and the right tools to guide you through each phase. If you’re working through the twelve steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous step program, having structured worksheets can make all the difference in transforming your way of life.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a twelve steps program where members work the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as outlined in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. A worksheet simplifies these important steps and lets people consider as much detail as possible for their step work, serving as essential life-saving tools for recovery.
We provide several worksheets (PDF files) to help people on the path to sobriety and the spiritual awakening necessary to continue to stay sober. These can be a great resource as we move through this recovery program, offering a comprehensive study guide for those attending AA meeting sessions or discussion meetings.
Understanding the Four Phases of Recovery
The steps of Alcoholics Anonymous can be divided into four phases, each containing three steps. This structure, developed by Bill Wilson and outlined in the pages of the Big Book, helps break down what might seem overwhelming into manageable, focused work that builds upon itself as a group of principles.
Phase 1: Accepting Our Condition (Steps 1-3)
This first phase brings us from acknowledging we have a problem with alcohol abuse to the point where we come to understand that there is only one way to deal with it. These initial steps address core issues that form the foundation of recovery.
Step 1: Admitting Powerlessness
“We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.”
This step is critical in moving toward a better life and often represents the beginning of a profound personality change. It is the first time we have faced the fact that we can’t manage our lives. This worksheet explores how we came to this admission and examines what shows that our lives are unmanageable.
The Step 1 worksheet helps you:
- Document specific examples of unmanageability
- Recognize patterns of powerlessness over alcohol and substance use
- Build the foundation for honest self-assessment
- Begin addressing mental health conditions that may accompany addiction
Step 2: Finding Hope in a Higher Power
“Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
This worksheet aims to examine three things and, in doing so, initiates our conscious contact with God. The following questions are explored through this spiritual experience:
- What would our higher power be like, or what would it be like if we were agnostic or atheist?
- What is our understanding of sanity, and what is our perception of its value?
- Why is relying on a higher power necessary to achieve sanity and peace of mind?
Step 3: Making the Decision
“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”
In Step 2, we become aware of a Higher Power and now reach out to that Higher Power. This is the beginning of our spiritual experience and marks a significant shift in our way of life. The worksheet for this step is a simple invitation to reflection that culminates in confirming the decision we have just made.
Phase 2: Reviewing Our Past (Steps 4-6)
Critical to staying sober is the achievement of emotional sobriety. This phase can be terrifying, but the end results are catharsis and freedom from your former self. These steps become a daily part of our lives as we learn to examine ourselves honestly.
Step 4: The Searching and Fearless Moral Inventory
“Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”
The fourth step takes time, and we often need to conquer hesitation. This comprehensive inventory serves as both a study guide for understanding ourselves and a force of healing in our recovery. The worksheet contains multiple sections for the fourth step inventory:
4th Step Inventory Worksheet Sections:
- Resentment – People, institutions, or principles that anger us
- Fear – What we’re afraid of and how it affects our lives
- Harm – People we’ve hurt and how we hurt them
- Sexual Conduct – Our sexual behavior and its impact
There is often an overlap between two or more of the sections, and our comprehensive worksheet helps you navigate these connections. This work often reveals core issues that need attention in recovery.
Step 5: Sharing Our Truth
“Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”
This is intimidating. We sit down with someone, typically our sponsor, and review what we revealed about ourselves in Step 4. This step often takes place in a focused group setting or one-on-one discussion.
This worksheet is simple. It is a list of what we admitted and a space for notes we can make based on any discussions arising from the conversation. This sharing often leads to significant spiritual awakening as we experience the result of these steps.
Step 6: Preparing for Change
“Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.”
The worksheet for this step helps us list our defects of character and the effects that these character flaws have and provides the details of the change we expect to happen as we allow God to remove them. The intent of this worksheet is to provide encouragement by letting us glimpse the future as we consign these things to the past.
Phase 3: Correcting Our Ways (Steps 7-9)
Now that we have reviewed our past and the problems that affected our drinking and were in turn affected by our alcohol abuse, we move, in this phase, to dealing with these issues. This phase often represents the most visible result of these steps in our daily interactions.
Step 7: Humbly Asking for Removal of Shortcomings
“Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”
This is similar to the Step 5 worksheet. It is a list of each shortcoming we ask our Higher Power, in faith, to remove. This step continues the spiritual experience begun in earlier steps.
Step 8: Making Our List
“Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.”
We can draw on some of the information in the Step 4 worksheet. We list the person and the harm we have done them. People may well appear several times on this list of all persons we have affected.
Step 9: Making Direct Amends
“Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”
This sheet expands on the 8th step worksheet. We name the person and give details of the event we must make amends for. It is critical that we understand our feelings and what motivated us to do what we did. It helps us understand ourselves and enables us to answer the question, “Why?” if the person we are making amends to asks that.
The step imposes a condition on making direct amends – except when doing so would injure them or others, and we need to decide whether to make direct amends to them based on this possibility. The comments portion of this worksheet allows us to comment on anything, such as why such people would be harmed by direct amends or things we should say when talking to such people.
It is possible that we can use this condition to avoid dealing with the persons we have harmed. For this reason, we need to show this to our sponsor and have our sponsor call us out on possible avoidance.
Phase 4: Maintaining Our Sobriety (Steps 10-12)
We have done it, and through the difficult last two phases, we have made gigantic strides towards emotional sobriety. Remember the 9th step promises begin and end with a promise:
“If we are painstaking about this development phase, we will be amazed before we are halfway through… They will materialize if we work for them.”
But now we deal with the issue of maintaining the victory that we have achieved over alcohol with the help of our higher power. This takes place through daily reflection and constant self-evaluation, which is the hallmark of the worksheets of this phase and becomes a daily part of our lives.
Step 10: Daily Personal Inventory
“Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.”
This worksheet contains two tables to help us reflect on the fears, emotions, and defects of the day. Daily practice of Step 10 keeps us accountable and prevents the buildup of resentments and character defects. This personal inventory becomes a daily part of our lives in recovery.
Step 11: Improving Conscious Contact
“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.”
This is a simple journal, really. It provides space to record the thoughts and feelings that come to us in prayer and meditation. This step deepens our spiritual experience and brings peace of mind.
Step 12: Carrying the Message
“Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”
This, too, is a journey. How have we carried the message, and to whom? How can we carry the message? This worksheet helps you track your service work and spiritual growth, often leading to work with drug addicts and others struggling with substance use disorders.
How to Use Your AA Step Worksheets Effectively
The Foundation: Complete Honesty
The key to each step of this simple program is being completely honest. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous places honesty as the most important part of our ability to achieve and sustain recovery. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.
It reinforces this when it says: “There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.”
As a result, there can be no evasion of any fact for each step. In practical terms, any time we try and duck the reality of how we were when we were drinking is a lie to ourselves and a barrier to a better life. At the end of the day, we are the historians of our own personal experience. If these steps do not reflect that experience accurately or completely, no matter how hard it may be, we do ourselves a disservice.
Taking Your Time
This means that each step should not be rushed. The finish line is getting to the 12th step as well as you can. There is no prize for speed, incompleteness, or evasion. Many people attend beginner classes or discussion meetings to better understand each step.
Accessing Your Worksheets – Free Download
We have printable worksheets (PDF files) available as a free download on the Step Worksheets tab on this website. These sheets are excellent learning tools because one of their purposes is to help us learn about ourselves and what needs to change to become and stay sober happily. They are provided to help people achieve what they intended when they first started coming to AA meeting sessions.
These life-saving tools serve as both a study guide and practical application resource for anyone working the twelve steps.
Working with Your Sponsor: The Key to Success
Having a Sponsor While Working the Steps
The sponsor’s role is crucial here. When working on a step, pull up your sponsor’s phone number on your phone. They have been through the process and are veterans. Better than us, as new entrants to the quest for sobriety, they know the pitfalls that we can encounter at each step and the result of these steps.
Good friends call us out, and sometimes, we need our sponsor to do that. By recording everything in writing, we give our sponsor insight into what we are thinking and feeling. If we share these sheets with our sponsors, we make their roles easier and their advice better. That only helps us achieve better outcomes and experience the force of healing that comes from working with others.
Benefits of Written Step Work
- Provides clear documentation of your progress through the twelve steps
- Helps sponsors understand your thought processes and spiritual experience
- Creates accountability in your recovery journey and way of life
- Allows for better guidance and support in your spiritual awakening
- Establishes a foundation for honest discussion and peace of mind
Meeting Resources and Community Support
Recovery works best in a community. Whether you’re attending your first AA meeting, participating in discussion meetings, or joining beginner classes, these worksheets complement the group experience. Many focus group sessions use these materials as study guide resources.
The only requirements for membership in Alcoholics Anonymous are a desire to stop drinking, but having structured materials like these worksheets can significantly enhance your experience and understanding of the group of principles that guide recovery.
Your Recovery Journey Continues
Here’s a final thought: Once you have completed a worksheet, keep it. Sometimes, going back over them can remind us how far we have come. They are also a record of our journey and evidence of the personality change that occurs as a result of these steps.
These AA step worksheets are more than just recovery homework – they’re life-saving tools for transformation. Each worksheet builds upon the last, creating a comprehensive inventory of your past, present, and future. Whether you’re new to the program or revisiting the steps, these printable PDF guides offer structure and support for your recovery journey and way of life.
Remember, recovery is not a destination but a daily part of our lives. These twelve steps worksheets provide the framework for that practice, helping you build the foundation for long-term sobriety and spiritual growth. The spiritual awakening that comes as the result of these steps transforms not just our relationship with alcohol, but our entire way of life.
Download Your Free AA Step Worksheets
Ready to begin or continue your step work? Download our complete collection of printable AA recovery step worksheets and start your journey toward lasting sobriety and peace of mind today. These life-saving tools are available as a free download to support your recovery journey.
These worksheets complement the teachings found in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and serve as practical study guide materials for anyone working the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether you’re addressing substance use issues, working on mental health conditions, or seeking a complete personality change, these resources support your journey toward spiritual awakening.
Note: Except where specified, all quotes are from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. The content and worksheets provided are study materials and do not replace official AA literature or the guidance of a qualified sponsor.