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IF TAKING THE STEPS VIA THE BDA CONFERENCE, WE SUGGEST THAT YOU DO:

  • Everything possible, with the help of the conference and the person taking you through the Steps (your Step guide), to get solvent and stay solvent through the DA and BDA program.
     

  • Bring the essential elements of recovery — willingness, honesty, and an open mind (see Appendix Two in the AA Big Book) — to both your Step work and your participation in the conference.
     

  • Commit to taking ALL of the Twelve Steps with your Step guide, making a whole-hearted commitment to take the first three Steps together and … if that goes well … making a commitment at Step Three to take the rest of the Steps together, ALL of the rest of the Steps. Then keep those commitments.
     

  • Complete all the reading suggestions from DA literature and the conference materials, plus readings that your Step guide may suggest from AA literature. 
     

  • Establish relationships with other conference participants and BDA members, including a conference “study buddy,” avoiding overdependence on your Step guide.
     

  • Answer as many of the questions in the workshop materials as possible — every week — and arrange engagement with a “study buddy” to mutually share and discuss the answers you didn’t have time to share with your Step guide.
     

  • Join in conference participation activities, including After Party and Fellowship Drop-in, as soon and as often as possible. We suggest attending at least one of each of these extracurricular conference activities each month.
     

  • Share, every week of the conference, if possible, on one or more of the topics being presented. We suggest bringing your answers to questions from the workshop materials and sharing those with the group.
     

  • Recognize the importance of all our Traditions, tools, and promises, but don’t try to implement them all immediately. It takes most of us years to put this program fully to use in our work and lives. For now, enjoy the immersion and pick up the tools you need soonest.
     

  • Be open to understanding the scope of DA and BDA, beyond the group and beyond your own needs. Stay in gratitude and open to ways you can contribute to the well-being of others and to our fellowship.
     

  • Quickly accept “I don’t know” as a response from your Step guide, when that is the case, and accept suggestions from your Step guide in finding good sources of information.
     

  • Ask for and gratefully receive help from your Step guide in recognizing what you are contributing to recurring difficulties and ongoing negative experiences in your business and life, beyond the conference materials, questions, and discussions.

ON THE OTHER HAND, WE SUGGEST THAT YOU:

  • Don’t allow yourself to give in to overwhelm, especially during the first five Steps. (The conference gets easier for everyone at Step Six.) You’re trying to change your life and yourself in a meaningful way during a six-month period. This is likely going to be intense.​

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  • Don’t take your resistance — to solvency, to recovery, to new ideas and suggestions, to spiritual guidance, to clear directions about how to TAKE THE STEPS in DA and BDA, to feedback you don’t like or want to hear — to your Step guide.​

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  • Don’t try to “figure (any of) this out” on your own. The availability of your Step guide will be limited beyond TAKING THE STEPS together, and your Step guide needs to be allowed to guide your interactions. You will need support from more than one person, perhaps several more people. We suggest “study buddies,” outreach calls, and PRGs.

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  • ​Don’t waste time and energy arguing or debating personal opinions with your Step guide. It is in no way helpful for debtors to argue theological, program, or any other matters with their Step guides.

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  • ​​Don’t take and / or hold on to attitudes characterized by black-and-white, all-or-nothing, good-and-bad thinking. The main point in TAKING THE STEPS is to be flexible and open-minded. Healthy recovery is built on acceptance and gratitude. Growing into clarity includes “knowing when we don’t know” about aspects of our business, work, personal, emotional, and spiritual lives.

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  • ​​Don’t expect your Step guide — or any other DA or BDA member — to offer professional services such as those provided by counselors, or the accounting, finance, tax, legal, medical, or social work communities. If any fellow members try to give you professional advice, rather than spiritual guidance and encouragement, you may want. to opt out of further interactions with them. 

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