By the time you reach the third step of AA, you have already done hard work. You have admitted you are powerless over alcohol in the first step, and you have come to believe a Higher Power could help in the second step.
Now comes the decision. A Step 3 AA worksheet gives you a calm, private place to make it.
This page covers what the third step asks, how to use the worksheet, and how it connects to the rest of the 12-step program.
What the Step 3 AA Worksheet Helps You Do
Step 3 reads, “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” It is the first true action step of the program.
A worksheet turns that big idea into something you can hold. It gives you space to name your fears, write your commitment, and look honestly at the parts of your entire life you have been gripping too tightly.
The Step 3 AA worksheet is not a test. It is a quiet conversation between you, your sponsor, and the care of God.
The Third Step of AA in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
The steps of Alcoholics Anonymous lay out this decision in Chapter Five, “How It Works.” The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous describes standing at a turning point and asking for protection and care with complete abandon.
That can sound like a tall order. Giving up our own way does not come naturally. All the program asks is willingness to grow along spiritual lines.
A simple saying captures the first three steps of recovery. “I can’t” is the first step, “God can” is the second step, and “I think I’ll let Him” is the third. Once you begin the next step and the rest of the steps of the program, this decision becomes the ground you stand on.
Understanding Your Higher Power and the Care of God
In the second step, you began to define a greater power outside yourself. The Step 3 AA worksheet invites you to look more closely at that Higher Power.
Your Higher Power is yours to define. It does not have to be the Christian God or fit any single set of religious beliefs. The AA program only asks that you find something larger than yourself, whether that is a meeting room, the ocean, or a love you cannot name.
Letting Go of the Whole Show
The Big Book pictures a person who tries to run the whole show, arranging the scenery and directing the rest of the players to suit their own lives. The show rarely comes off the way they planned.
That picture stings because it is familiar. We have been a victim of the delusion that life would work if we managed everyone and everything well enough.
The Big Book names the first requirement plainly: any life run on self-will can hardly be a success. Some of us blamed the sad state of the nation, or the sins of the twentieth century, for our troubles. The third step turns the focus of step work back to the only thing we can change.
This is the heart of the process of surrender. We are not trading our own power for weakness. Our personal power returns the moment we hand control to a new Employer who runs things better than we did, setting us on a new path.
Step 3 AA Worksheet Questions for Reflection
A good worksheet is built around the following questions. Answer them slowly and with complete honesty, drawing on your personal experience.
Where in my everyday life am I still trying to control the outcome? This is often where the third step of AA begins.
What forms of fear make it hard to let go? Writing them down loosens their grip.
What would it look like to trust the care of God with my children, my job, or my relationships? Naming them turns a vague idea into a plan.
The Benefits of Surrender and Peace of Mind
Identifying the potential benefits gives you something to hold when surrender feels hard.
The Big Book describes how a new power flows in, bringing peace of mind once we stop trying to run everything ourselves. People describe a quieter mind and steadier conscious contact.
This is where a positive change becomes a positive attitude. Surrender is the door to a better life and a more durable sober life, opened by a few good ideas.
Prayers and Spiritual Growth in the Third Step
Many people mark this decision with a simple prayer. The Third Step Prayer, found in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous on page 63, asks a Higher Power to relieve us of the bondage of self so that we might better do God’s will.
In paraphrase, it asks that victory over our difficulties bear witness to others of “Thy power,” “Thy love,” and “Thy way of life.” It pairs naturally with step eleven, where we pray for knowledge of His will. You do not need elaborate philosophical convictions to begin a spiritual path, only willingness.
Third Step Prayer
From the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter Five, “How It Works,” page 63.
God, I offer myself to Thee to build with me & to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy love & Thy way of life. May I do Thy will always.
Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference.
PASTE the verbatim Serenity Prayer text here.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
How the Step 3 AA Worksheet Connects to the Rest of the Steps
The third step is a doorway. Once the decision is made, you build on the previous steps and move into the necessary next steps.
Step four asks for a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself. Step five has you admit the exact nature of your wrongs to God, to yourself, and to another understanding person. Step six prepares you to let go of your character defects.
Later, you make a list of all the people you have harmed, make direct amends to them where you can, and keep a daily personal inventory. Each step builds on the previous one, which is why the focus of step three is so often revisited. The reward, promised across the steps of recovery, is a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps.
Working the Worksheet With Your Sponsor and Sober Peers
You do not have to do this alone. Sharing your worksheet with a sponsor or trusted sober peers turns private reflection into honest conversation.
The program has always welcomed people from every walk of life, from the retired businessman to the safecracker. The wisdom of other AA members is one of your most valuable resources.
If trusting a Higher Power feels impossible the first time, that is okay. You may simply need to sit with steps one and two a little longer. Other fellowships hold a similar idea, such as the surrender at the center of the Celebrate Recovery principle, so you are in good company.
Download the Printable Step 3 AA Worksheet
When you are ready, the printable AA Step Three worksheet is available for free download as a PDF on our Step Worksheets page. It works well before or after anonymous meetings.
Keep your finished worksheet. Reading it later shows how far you have come and records your recovery program and 12-step journey. These study guides reward a return visit.
Your worksheet is personal. Think of it as having its own privacy policy, shared only with your sponsor or a trusted friend in recovery. Whether you fill it out in the Florida sunshine or at a kitchen table in winter, it meets you where you are.
The third step is where many of us find our best moments in recovery begin. In practical terms, you make a decision, then make it again tomorrow.
This content is for educational and spiritual support and is not a substitute for medical advice or addiction treatment. If you are struggling with alcohol use disorder, substance abuse, or the disease of addiction, please reach out to a qualified professional. Except where noted, quotations are drawn from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- 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.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.