The AA Promises — What They Mean and When They Come True

Pages 83-84 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous contain what members call "The Promises" — a passage that describes what happens to people who work the steps. These 12 promises are read at meetings around the world and serve as a beacon for people early in recovery who need to know that things will actually get better.

The Promises

The passage begins: "If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through." It goes on to describe a life that is fundamentally transformed: freedom from fear, intuitively knowing how to handle situations, understanding the word serenity, seeing how experience can benefit others.

"We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace."

When Do the Promises Come True?

The Big Book says: "They will always materialize if we work for them." Not sometimes. Always. But they require working the steps — specifically the work described in Steps 8 and 9, which immediately precede the Promises in the text.

Read the Promises in their full context in AABlueBook — the only app with the complete, verified Big Book text and a 1930s dictionary to help you understand every word. Free year on iOS: bit.ly/aabfree. Android: FREEMONTHFL on Google Play.