Twelve Steps Journal Prompts

Here you will find the Twelve Steps which have been adapted to fit in with the Enneagram personalities and behaviour. They are designed to be used with a journal and shared with a person or people that you trust. Please feel free to adapt them where necessary.

Step 1: We admit we are powerless over our emotions and personality type and our lives are not what they could be.

The truth is, there are many things that we are powerless over. While there may be few things that we can control, those few things can make all the difference in our life, and the lives of those around us. We can become aware of our behaviour, our attitude, and the choices we make daily, and exercise our control over them to the best we can.

Questions:

In what ways does your personality type restrict you from being who you could be?

What patterns of behaviour do you consider to be most restrictive in enabling you to become who you could be?

Step 2: We believe that only something greater than ourselves can help us become who we are meant to be.

By recognising that something bigger than just our own desires is with us, will encourage us and our motivation will be more persistent.

Questions:

Do you believe that you can’t do this alone and need a power greater than yourself to restore you?

What might that higher power look like?

How do you feel about this?

Step 3: We decide to turn our will and personality type over to something more caring and greater than ourselves.

Make the decision that our will is now taking a backseat to a greater purpose and make it each moment that you feel yourself going back to old habits of heart and mind.

Questions:

Do you believe in a loving or judgmental power?

Where did his image come from?

What might stop you from turning to a loving power greater than you?

Step 4: We make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Look at your whole self. Think about your vice and virtues, wings and arrows and defence mechanisms. Get that stuff down on paper, so it’s there for us to make your peace with. This is how we see ourselves, so we either work to accept it, or work to change it.

Questions:

What have you noticed about yourself that you weren’t aware of before?

What are the qualities that you love?

What do I wish was different?

How do I continue to fall into unhealthy patterns?

What areas would you like to improve?

Step 5: I admit to myself, someone who I trust and a loving higher power about our shortcomings.

Work through the things you might feel bad about and label the emotions you feel. Then open up about them to others. Join a forum online or confide in your partner or good friend. Once you have voiced these things to someone else, you can begin to benefit from having a perspective other than your own. You will also feel much better having those things out in the open.

Action:

Find at least one other person who you can trust to share this with.

Share these thoughts with your loving higher power.

Remember to have compassion on yourself as you do this.

Step 6: We are ready to have our higher power remove these defects in our character.

The days come and go at the same rate they always have, and that will continue, no matter what we do or don’t do. If we are going to leverage those days for effective change, we have to have a system in place to ensure that whatever greater thing or purpose we are submitting ourselves to, we can work toward it.

Questions:

Are you ready to let go of the things that are hindering you, or hold you back?

Are there parts of you that you don’t want to let go of? Why?

Step 7: We humbly ask our higher power to take remove our shortcomings and let go.

Left to our own devices, we human tend toward momentary pleasures, comfort, and convenience. The only way to overcome that inclination is by submitting to a principled way of living. That can only be done if we make the appropriate preparations.

Action:

Bring these shortcomings to your higher power. (It might help to write them down on paper and then burn it in a safe place).

Spend between 5 mins and 20 mins in silence with your higher power.

Step 8: I make a list of ways that I might have harmed others by my actions and be willing to turn that around.

Anything worth doing ultimately relies upon people. That goes for both our personal life and our professional one. The more there are unresolved or unspoken issues between us and others, the more friction there is keeping us from achieving what we and others set out to do. Get right with the people you live, love, and work with.

Questions & Actions:

Can you think of people that you might have consciously or unconsciously hurt in some way?

Are there people who you might want to ask if you have hurt them in any way? If so write them down as they come to mind.

Step 9: Put things right with the people in our life.

Start with an admission of some way that we have messed up and apologise for it. Then ask how we can make things right or talk about how we are working on whatever trait caused you to mess up. Have a conversation where you ask someone else about how they’re doing — specifically how they’re feeling. Establish a rapport, build a reputation as someone straightforward, sincere, and understanding. Guard that reputation with your life.

Action:

Meet with these people over a phone call or zoom or coffee or meal.

Step 10: Keep track of what I’m doing well, and where I can improve.

If we don’t write down our goals, dreams, commitments, our odds of meeting them decreases. The the act of recording those things gives us the feeling of greater control over our own lives.

At some regular interval, write about what you’re doing well, and what you’re not. Then think about how to fix the things you don’t like, and plan to improve. Being a good person, and improving, is real work. And any work worth doing is worth planning out. Planning involves thinking, and the best way to think about something is to write about it.

When you slip, see if you can get back up, or ask for help. The sooner you do it, the more people will be willing to help you, and the better you’ll feel.

Question to reflect on daily:

What has brought life to you today?

What has been hard?

Do you need to make amends with anyone that you might have hurt or wronged in some way?

Step 11: Set aside time to pray, meditate and reflect through stillness, silence and solitude.

Life comes at you pretty quickly, and if you’re not careful, it can leave you just as quickly. Taking a set period of time — an hour is best — each week to step away from everything, quiet the mind, and reflect, will repay you in dividends.

Take the time regularly to withdraw from the commotion of work and think about things. Collect your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Reflect on what they mean. Imagine what you’d like the future to be like, and work toward that image. Allow it to change each week, as your life in general changes. Make that a habit.

Action:

When is the best time to set aside for prayer and meditation. A time for stillness, silence and solitude.

Are there books, apps, or podcasts that might help you with this?

Step 12: Use what I have learned to help others

Don’t simply accumulate knowledge without bothering to share it with others and help them do the same. It’s not even that difficult to do. It’s actually part of the learning process.

Question and Action:

Are there other people that you know who would benefit from this?

How might you approach them?