THE STEPS · STEP EIGHT
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
IN PLAIN WORDS
The step that's only a list.
Step Eight asks for two things and neither of them is an apology. A list — which the Book says we already have, because our inventory wrote it — and willingness. That's all.
Not a phone call, not a letter, not a rehearsed speech. The discipline of this step is refusing to jump ahead: the moment we start planning what we'll say to someone, we've left Step Eight and skipped into Nine without the preparation. Names and willingness.
And if some names come with a "never" attached — that's not failure. That's where every honest Eighth Step starts.
INTO ACTION · BIG BOOK, PP. 76–77
Where we get stuck
“I can't face making these calls.”
Good news: this step has no calls. Eight is the list. Nine is later, one at a time, with counsel. Don't work two steps at once.
“Some people I will NEVER apologize to.”
Never is an honest place to begin. Many of our 'nevers' moved on their own as we worked the list. Write the name anyway.
“Don't they owe ME an amends?”
Probably some do. The Book's instruction is to sweep our side of the street — their side was never our department.
THE STEP EIGHT TOOL
The List
Names and willingness — nothing else. Initials are enough, and no one gets contacted from here.
🛡 Free · No account · Nothing is saved or stored
What a sponsor would ask
“Whose name did you leave off because writing it makes it real?”
“Is your own name on the list?”
“Which 'never' would you bet money stays a never? Watch that one.”
From the literature
Big Book · pp. 76–77
Big Book · pp. 64–71
Step Nine is where the list goes — one name at a time, with counsel.
Continue to Step Nine →