THE STEPS · STEP ELEVEN
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.
IN PLAIN WORDS
The step with a morning and an evening.
Step Eleven is the quietest step and the most practical. The Book splits it across the day: at night, the constructive review — which is our Step Ten tool, one page over. And "on awakening," the morning practice: we think about the twenty-four hours ahead, ask for direction, and go.
No lotus position required, no hour of silence, no vocabulary test. Conscious contact just means we stopped going through the day alone — we check in before the day starts, and we pause when agitated or doubtful in the middle of it. Same Power as Step Two: as we understood Him, in our words, at our kitchen table, coffee in hand.
INTO ACTION · BIG BOOK, PP. 86–88
The evening half of Step Eleven is the constructive review — our Step Ten tool, one page over. Go to Step Ten →
Where we get stuck
“I don't know how to pray.”
The Book keeps it simple: on awakening, we ask for direction for the day. Our words, our understanding, thirty seconds. That counts.
“I can't meditate. My brain won't stop.”
Neither could ours. The Book's version is thinking calmly about the day ahead — not emptying the mind, just aiming it.
“Praying ONLY for His will? I have needs.”
The Book's experience: praying for outcomes kept us managing the universe. Asking for direction and strength turned out to cover everything the outcomes never did.
THE STEP ELEVEN TOOL
On Awakening
The morning half: the day ahead, one honest ask in our own words, and a plan for the pause. Two quiet minutes before the phone wins.
🛡 Free · No account · Nothing is saved or stored
A PRAYER MANY OF US CAME TO LOVE
This prayer is far older than the fellowship — first published anonymously in France around 1912 and long attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. Generations in recovery have adopted it as the Eleventh Step's companion.
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
TRADITIONAL · ATTRIBUTED TO ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
What a sponsor would ask
“What wins your first five minutes right now — the day ahead, or the phone?”
“What's the one hard thing in tomorrow? Have you asked for help with it, in any words at all?”
“When you got agitated yesterday, did you pause — or did you launch?”
From the literature
Big Book · pp. 86–88
The Prayer of St. Francis
Traditional · on this page
Step Twelve is where it all goes — carried.
Continue to Step Twelve →