Several 12-Step programs, in particular those associated with sexual or relationship addiction, focus their members' attention closely on motivation -- what motivates us to act in a particular way. This can be a valuable discipline in our recovery. It's all very well to do "the next right thing," but what is my motivation? Is it to further my own recovery and the recovery of other people? Or is it to make a favorable impression in some quarter or other, so that I can gain the attention of someone that it would be best I stay away from?

Motivation can also be an important issue in our working of Step 12. At first sight, we might suspect that this Step is written back-to-front. Surely it should read, We tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs, so that we would have a spiritual awakening? If that's not the case, why is it that our sponsors have recommended throughout our recovery that we work with other people?

The answer is that the spiritual awakening of Step 12 comes about as a result of working the previous eleven Steps. While it is true that we have tried to carry the message to others prior to working Step 12, the purpose usually was to better ensure our sobriety. Once we work Step 12 on the back of a sincere and ongoing practice of Steps 10 and 11, though, the motivation for Step 12 practice inevitably changes. We don't carry the message in order to have a spiritual awakening; we carry the message because we've had a spiritual awakening. We no longer are concerned for our own recovery. Instead, we share it with others in our lives because we have learned that we are these other people and that they are us. We carry the message not because of what we hope to become as a result, but because of what we have become.