Sobriety Breakthrough: Take the 12 Steps in One Day

Host Cat York talks with recovery coach and author John Merkel about his book Sobriety Breakthrough and his day-long workshops that guide newcomers through the 12 steps to jumpstart lasting recovery. They explore common early-sobriety traps, why meetings alone aren’t enough, and how immediate, paired action brings real change.

The episode outlines practical steps for newcomers: partner work, focused step-taking, and using desperation as momentum to engage in recovery now. Resources and workshops are available at https://www.sobrietybreakthrough.com

Sobriety Breakthrough is also available for purchase on Amazon.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Hello, and welcome to the Call Her Cat Podcast, a show dedicated to honest conversations about addiction recovery and finding the strength to break the cycle. I'm your host, Kat York, and this is where we get real about the messy, complex, and often unspoken truth of what it means to heal. If you're working to redefine your story, searching for a connection, or simply need to know you're not alone, you've come to the right place. My mission is to hold space for the raw, direct stories of people who have walked this path. We dive into the personal battles and the profound lessons learned along the way. Before we begin, a quick disclaimer. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the host and the guests. This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be professional or medical advice. Please consult a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation. Today we have the privilege of speaking to John Merkel, a recovery coach and author of Sobriety Breakthrough: Years of Recovery Progress in One Day. Since 1997, John has been leading workshops where he takes newly sober alcoholics through the 12 steps in a single day. John, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Thank you, Kat. It's great to be here.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Did I miss anything? Is there anything you want to add?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

No, I think that was pretty thorough.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

All right. So sobriety for speaking of my own experience, sobriety was very tricky coming into the rooms. Um, just even knowing where to start. And it's so easy to get derailed. There's so much going on, like inside, and where do you start? What do you do? What are some of the can you talk about some of those hurdles that newcomers face, like early in sobriety?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Well, thank you, Kat. I I appreciate that. There is the situation which I believe is responsible for the large number of people who are newly sober and don't make it. Like I think the numbers are scary. However, with a little bit of with a little bit of important direction early on, um I I believe that that good quality recovery is available. There's this thing I call it the trap. And the trap from from my perspective is that that contrast between your drinking career and your life and recovery. That early recovery, it seems like you start going to meetings, you're not drinking, you're learning a lingo and all that, and yet right there it feels different. It feels so different from your drinking career that it's easy to fall into the trap. And the trap is I feel like I'm doing recovery just because I'm not drinking and I'm going to meetings. And so there's complacency sets in. So that's what I think is the is the is the common early experience in recovery. It's like, hey, here I am. I'm I'm really doing my stuff, but it's not really enough. That's what I believe.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

And I I've I heard when I first started in recovery, um, newcomers hit what's called like a pink cloud. Um, you know, they there's the the fog is lifting, so to speak. You know, you're meeting new people, you're feeling good about yourself, your life's starting to come back together. But at some point, a lot of people hit like a plateau or they stall. And personally, I stalled around the beginning of the 12 steps, you know, because it's one thing to go to meetings and talk and read the book, but the steps can really trip a lot of people up. Why do you think there's that stall to start and go to the next level?

SPEAKER_00 5:10

The stall happens because it's very difficult to wrap your head around exactly what it's gonna take to bring about the psychic change, the psychic change that's talked about in the doctor's opinion. So, with such clarity, the psychic change is described. It's like that's the thing that's like all of a sudden you've walked into a new world, but it can that that pink cloud happens because okay, I'm not spending money like a drunken sailor. I'm I'm like I'm I'm learning all the lingo, I'm going to meetings, I'm I'm feeling better about myself. And because addiction in itself, from my perspective, starts out with comfort chasing. And so it's the comfort chasing that that sort of builds upon itself, and pretty soon we're just all about comfort chasing. Not much has changed when you start going to meetings. You still, the alcoholic still doesn't want to like embrace the discomfort of doing the steps, and that that fear that that common kind of syndrome of chasing comfort can can put a barrier between you and what it actually takes to bring about that psychic change.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

And would you say that's that crosses territory of observing recovery and participating in it and like actively being recovered?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

It's it's spelled out, I think, very well in the in one sentence. I think it's the most important sentence in all of AA literature, and it's one sentence in the forward to the 12 and 12 that is the most succinct description of of what you need to know about the 12 steps. That the that the 12 steps are a set of principles, spiritual in nature, which if practiced as a way of life can expel the obsession and and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole. Well, the operative word there is practice.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

You know, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob did not just start going to meetings, there were no meetings, they didn't just stop drinking, they started practicing what they discovered. They started practicing by taking others through the steps. It's the practice is what brings about that psychic change. Now, if you're new and you ask somebody that has some quality sobriety, yeah, I mean you you this is like a practice that you can do. You can say, hey, you know, you go to a meeting and you see somebody, and it's pretty clear they've got some quality sobriety.

unknown 8:27

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

They're smiling, they're joking, they're laughing, they're comfortable in their own skin. Right. And you're facing the discomfort of having to do this work, which you don't really understand and don't have any experience.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

But you ask a few people, hey, was all that work worth it? Was it worth it? I mean, you seem like you got good sobriety, and I think to a person they're gonna say yes. Yeah, that's it was worth it, it is worth it.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

But you highlighted um a good point, which is um comfort, you know. We a lot of alcoholics seek recovery for comfort, you know, they've lost a lot, they didn't get there like on their best day, you know what I mean? Like, you know, um, you know, you didn't get there on a winning streak most times, you know, and um so what was the you have a book called Sobriety Breakthrough Years of Recovery Progress in One Day. What was the catalyst for that book?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

The the thing is when I started um leading uh workshops for recovering alcoholics, I noticed that it it wasn't the discussing of the steps, it wasn't reading the steps that makes any difference because you can sit in step studies for years or or go to a 12 and 12 meeting for years and you can read and study and discuss. But until the action of taking comes about, then the progress seems delayed because the illusion that I'm reading about the steps and I'm discussing the steps, is taking the steps, is is such a it's a comfort. It's like, okay, I'm doing it, I'm doing recovery. It's kind of challenging to realize that it's it's where the it's it's where the uh the pen hits the paper. It's it's the taking, it's the sharing with another recovering alcoholic. It it's actually the doing that the practice that does it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Because you your book is a um it's a partner book. It's not just you know me sitting down doing it by myself. And do you think that helps the newcomer sitting down with another newcomer to Yeah?

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Kat, I don't think anybody gets sober alone. No, no, you could you can sit in your room and you get a PhD in AA, but until you work with another alcoholic, until you until you engage. I call it the doing and sharing. It's the two things that are that are in every section of the book. There's doing, which you do in silence and in private, and then immediately share. And it it it's in that process that that it kind of it begins to gel, it begins to take effect. So yeah, I believe it's it's that it's that action. And there's there's few people that that willingly or um just want to embrace it at that level. But what you may not realize is it's always easier than it seems it's gonna be. Yeah. Yeah. In other words, I break it down into very little bite-sized chunks so that somebody can have a and a direct and immediate experience in one day and feel the effect of taking, for instance, the fourth and fifth step are very scary to newcomers, and the whole idea of listing everything out is overwhelming. But when it's broken down to like one little bite-sized bit, and the reason that that works really well is because uh, for instance, resentments, all your resentments have one thing in common, you. So if you solve, if you solve the the mysteries about one resentment in your life, it opens a window, it illuminates the answers to virtually all the other ones because they all have you in common. That's why I like breaking it down, and I don't like stretching it out. I don't like these. I mean, there's a time and a place because taking steps is a lifetime process. So there's a time and a place to get into a 12-week or 26-week step study and engage with people. But if you're new and you haven't taken the steps, I highly recommend that you take the steps as quickly as possible. There are people that I mean, um, there's the uh slogans that are that are very, very misleading in AA. Yeah. Uh don't drink and go to meetings. Just don't drink and go to meetings. Old timer will say it. Possibly an old timer who's never taken the steps, who just goes to meetings and you know hangs out in in the AA hall and doesn't take the steps. But if you if you fall into that misbelief or the misunderstanding that all you have to do is not drink and go to meetings, then you you're on the slippery slope of relapse. The fact the newcomer is so close to relapse, it's like it's almost like the exception that if somebody makes it to being newly sober to quality sobriety. And and the uh being a spectator in AA is the most risky behavior that a non-sober alcoholic can do. Spectator just watching, doesn't know what to do, afraid to engage, hasn't maybe has a sponsor and doesn't use them. But you know, I broke it down so that two brand new alcoholics that don't know anything can pick it up, pick up the book, and take the 12 steps in one day. So they'll they'll not only have a an experience, not academic, experiential, they'll they'll have an experiential session that that delivers more epiphanies, insights, and real perspective, then you're just gonna get being in the stands.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Yeah.

unknown 16:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Because you highlighted something that's important. Um, you know, the relapse rate in uh in in AA is very high. You know, it's very high because it is a big program. It is a big program. And um you also highlighted something that some people do, they just don't drink and they go to meetings. Now, what is the downfall of just not drinking and going to meetings? Say you go to two meetings every day, you're not drinking, you still have your life on track, you're not losing your home, your marriage. What is the downfall to not doing the steps?

SPEAKER_00 16:59

It's the illusion that you're in recovery. That's the problem. You think you're in recovery because you're doing all that, you're doing new things, it's far different than your drinking career, and that illusion that you're in recovery. And you're working with a sponsor because you call and talk about finances and romances and and all that. If these things are just an illusion, that's not the real deal. That's not what Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob did in the beginning that worked so well that they effectively changed the world for millions of people. What they did was they got into action. So, yeah, I it scares me. In fact, uh that was the whole reason for the book. Just knowing I like I could only do so much in my own hometown.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

I led meetings for many years, um, these one-day 12-step meetings, but I couldn't reach outside of my own community very effectively. Right. And so now um I wanted to move into uh into a direction to be more on purpose, to do I'm getting old. And uh, and if if there's something that that I can do, if there's something that I know about early recovery, about if if I kind of know the secret sauce that helps newly sober alcoholics get on track and experience like a perspective and and and experience like something by doing that encourages them to keep going. So the uh that that's the reason that that I'm here. I it pains me to think that somebody's like you think, well, this isn't working for me, or I just don't get it. I've been going to meetings, you know, that whole thing about well, you know, I I I'm coming up on 90 days, or one time I had two years, but now I'm just coming back. There's all this calendar kind of consideration. Like, like, like it's often that the newcomer might believe that there's some mystical thing that's gonna happen in two years, or when I get five years, I can't wait to get five years. Nothing's gonna happen in five years. There's nothing gonna happen in five years. However, there's a lot can happen in five days.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

If you take somebody through the steps, and the next day you take somebody else through the steps, and it and all of a sudden you're engaged, you're being proactive in recovery. When you're proactive in recovery, your your vision of yourself changes. You're not somebody that's trying to get sober, you're living a life of sobriety. You're actually helping someone else, and you help somebody else, and now they look at you differently, and that that that that feels good. That that's nice. You help somebody, and then they take and they they go help somebody, and and it and it grows like that's the way AA started. Yeah, and we can get back to the roots of just taking the steps. You know, there's stories about Dr. Bob about how the thousands of people he took through the steps in 10 years. You don't do that by doing it in a 26-week program. You don't take lots of people through the steps, and so here's people who change lives by taking, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

And and you highlighted something that I think is important because AA started out as just one alcoholic helping another, right? And a lot something that was hard for me or discouraging for me when I entered was you sit down and you shut up, you have nothing to offer, right? You know, it was that that's what I was told these were high, was that and you know, that can be you're already not feeling great. I already wasn't feeling great, you know, and now you have nothing to say, but that's that's a very dangerous slope, too, to not speak, to not talk. And so what I like about your book is that it is one alcoholic helping another, you know, and like you said, you get to see the difference in yourself and whoever you're working with, and it overcomes one of those pitfalls. Of the newcomer doesn't have anything to offer. That I think is my this is my personal opinion a big pitfall of welcoming a newcomer in and saying, don't talk. You know, and it gets back to I think what like the kind of the grassroots of what AA is is just one alcoholic helping another. And so when uh what do you think we could do more? Not even just like in in the recovery rooms, but like in general to help out a newcomer in sobriety.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Here's what I think about that. The desperation that you walk into AA with is a gift, and you can use that like if you're feeling totally uh like a train wreck, and that desperation, that desire to get out of the of the mess you've made of your life, that desire is a gift, and if and especially when you're early, you can use the the the power of that desperation to just jump right in. I want it so bad that I'm willing to do whatever it takes. If you've got that, then you've got what it takes. So sit down and shut up is not relevant. It's like, oh boy, you are desperate. Perfect. Here's what you can do. Take what, take what you have. Because, you know, the feelings, we we tried to escape them, but we can use them. And if you if the if the newcomer allows their desperation to dissipate without taking full advantage of the desperation, they have missed a vital opportunity because your passion and enthusiasm to get well can be used immediately, not in 90 days. You don't have to wait a year, six months, you don't have to wait that. You can just jump in like both feet right away. And and so think about it. Let's say the um homeless Harry walks into a meeting and and he hears a message of hope. And he grabs on to the whole thing and says, Wow, anybody else want to like, you know, wrap around this and run with it? And there's like, you know, some other uh, you know, uh under the bridge bed, he goes, Yeah, I do, let's do it, you know, and they just jump into it right away. And then everybody else in the meeting, even the old curmudgeons that just say just don't drink and go to meetings, even those people go, Whoa, look at these two, they're on fire. Yeah, like and and the next thing you know, they look different. Yeah, everybody can see it. They look different because they've worked on their insides. Yeah, and like is often said in meetings, when you fix your insides, your outsides will manifest the condition of your inner self. Yeah, so you work on your insides, do the steps. That's it. That's a way to say that. You you work on your insides, and you you I would recommend just go at it, go at it full tilt. Yeah, take the steps to your best of your ability, whether you use my book or something else, you you take the steps to the best of your ability and do the work. Is it gonna be uncomfortable? Yeah, yes, it's gonna, but you know, discomfort isn't the enemy. No, it's like the doorway. You you walk through the doorway of discomfort, and surprise, surprise, it's not as near as bad as you thought, and the epiphany's insights and perspectives that you gain the that day will make a difference. So, you know, uh no, sit down, shut up's not it. It's like jump in both feet, get at it. Because if you're alcoholic, the cool thing is it's a disease for which there's a really great solution for this this lifestyle that was designed by Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson, such a gift to alcoholics because they they just spelled it out. Here it is, and it works. So yeah, I I'm a big believer. So there's there's there's no reason to wait. I can't imagine, you know, in in um nearly 30 years of leading one-day step studies. I never saw anybody who couldn't get it. Is not for those that want it. There's it's not for those that need it. Recovery is for people who do it. And the smallest amount of doing can have such a map marvelous impact on the person like straight away that they'll be amazed, and then enthusiastic desperation will turn into passion and enthusiasm.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

And I I like I like your book. Um, I like it a lot because I had I had a friend come over and we worked through it a little bit. And I wanted to kind of put myself back into the seat of a newcomer, you know, and because they I found you know, I was I was one of those people who was terrified of doing the steps, you know, because it it is very intimidating when you read the steps as long as they are and as expanded as they are, and the 12 and 12 is very big, it's very thick with language. Um, you know, you break it down so it's not so intimidating. It's not so, oh my god, like, you know, it's not so because when you're first coming in, you are so rattled. You know, you are so rattled that some people, you know, you like, how do you spell your name? I don't know. You know, it's like you're just so and so when we're sitting down, my friend, we're going through like this makes sense because it's broken down into bits and pieces. And when you when you are organizing a workshop, you know, what is it, what does the workshop look like? Can you kind of run us through like what that workshop looks like? Like what that one day looks like.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

And and the uh and the book is set up so anybody can lead a workshop. I mean, like straight away, first day, don't even open it. Just say, I'm leaving the workshop, and then you open the book right then and there. There's no preparation required. But what a workshop looks like, and the one I most recently did is I just uh every there's no PowerPoint or anything, nothing like that. You don't need you don't need any technology whatsoever.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

You have coffee? Is there a lot of coffee?

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Yeah, coffee. So you need like 12 sheets of paper and a pencil and a book. That's it, and sharing partners. So you can invite, you could say, hey, I'm having a workshop and invite as many people as you can fit in the venue, whatever it is. And if everybody has a book, 12 sheets of paper, and something to write with, and their sharing partners established before the meeting started, then that's it. That's good. And then you just open up and you start like right then and there. So this particular sobriety breakthrough workshop runs about four and a half hours. If you jump into it and you take the breaks and and do everything, that's four and a half hours. I say one day, but you know, it's better to that, and so you you you just do it. Now, it doesn't really need to be facilitated, but it it can be facilitated because somebody's got to go, okay, you know, after the break, come back in, let's let's go back in, do the next section. Right. But if you know right off the bat that it just takes 12 sheets of paper and it just takes sharing partners, and it just takes a place where you can have some uh what you're free from distractions.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

I have everybody turn their phone off. You can turn it back on during the during your break and you know check your messages or whatever, but I just say let's power down that so that we can focus. Lives are at stake. So let's focus. So it's very, very easy to do. Uh even easier, I suppose, if you want, if you got a flat screen TV and you get a copy of the of the uh ebook, just shoot it up on the flat screen TV. I mean, you there's many ways to do it. And then you just want to have an agreement that that you know what what whatever what happens here stays here, and that you agree to just stay focused on what we're doing just for this one basically half a day. Yeah, that's all that's needed. Yeah, there isn't anything more than that. It it's I'm after leading workshops for a long time, for decades, I got it down to the like the simplest the simplest possible common denominators. Now, there's some parts to the book that are kind of cool, if you don't mind. Um there there's an introduction and there's a description like in there just exactly how um just exactly how to lead a meeting. I mean, there there's your basic right there. Uh who who would be a good sharing partner, how to pick a sharing partner, then I tell you exactly how to do it, what you need. In other words, set it up, and then we go into the fundamental parts of the big book in kind of a an experiential way. I take a paragraph out of the doctor's opinion and then personalize it. The um there's a there's a section in in there about the seven levels of sobriety. So that the idea is when you review the seven levels of sobriety, that helps you map your journey. You you can identify where you are and what the different stages are and what they're like, and what the ultimate goals are. Like when you look at the difference between level one and level seven, you now you have a description of the kind of life that you're gonna have when you do the steps, when you take the steps. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

I do think and again, you're you're not at all saying, you know, this replaces, you know, a 12, a 12-week or 26-week in-depth step program. This is just to see an immediate change, get some relief, and to keep going on with recovery. It's not to replace anything, it's just a uh like a support.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

I believe that the 12 steps is a lifelong process, and there'll be many different uh ways that you take the steps in your life, many different practices. However, because of the extreme failure rate of newly sober alcoholics, yeah, I believe that the most important thing is getting off to a great start to get to get the some fundamentals down, not just academically, but to have an experience that no one can take away from you. Once you've experienced the benefits, the insights, the understandings of taking the steps, that that carries. That's got legs. That's far different than being a spectator. It's the fundamental what I have believed. I've come to believe that that's the most important thing for newly sober alcoholic. Get a great start without delay. Don't wait. It's not it's not 30 days or six months or anything like that. Oh yeah, well, nothing's gonna happen because of the passage of time.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

What's a good what's a good piece of advice or suggestion that you would offer to somebody a newcomer? You know, just beginning down this road of sobriety.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

I think it's very important to face your fears. For instance, um what come pay attention, what comes up for you when you think about going to a new meeting? Right? Understand that your instincts kind of work against you, okay? For instance, uh, because a comfort is so important, understand that if you drive past the old pub where you used to hang out, there's a comfort level associated with that. So, you know, that it's very easy to walk in there or to go see one of your old drinking buddies. That doesn't that doesn't like key up some instincts that are uncomfortable. However, the very thing that would be really good for you to go to a new meeting, to go to a meeting you've never been to before, to walk up to a sponsor or a potential sponsor, or to talk to another alcoholic, these things that are new and unfamiliar, the they might be the very healthiest thing you could possibly do for your recovery, for your life, for your family. They feel uncomfortable. And just know that those things that feel uncomfortable, look look a little closer. Is that the very thing I should be doing? Should I just walk right into that fire, which is a new like you you drive toward the meeting, and it's like, well, I don't feel good walking in there. That's probably the best thing you can do. Let people know who you are, become part of, build a community. Because after some time goes by, those people that you meet, those meetings that you go to, you get yourself a uh a home group or you can do some service work, you you sit in a meeting, and you know, this is a you you hear somebody, if you don't have a sponsor, I suggest you go to the next meeting you can find close to your house or in a Zoom meeting, and just go. And then if you don't have a sponsor, you just listen and you kind of you know make a mental note. Who sounds really good? Probably the same gender as you, um, who sounds really good, and then say, hey, would you you know message them or walk up to them after the meeting and say, look, I'm new. Uh would you be willing to work with me? Yeah. So if I'm it if you really if you're feeling the desperation, you use it. Like you get a where and when, or you go to the meeting app and you find all the meetings, maybe you print it out. That might be good. Print out the meeting schedule in your hometown or in your area, and then go to as many of the meetings as fast as you can. Like, don't wait, don't, and then because you know, you do that, and before long you find your home group, and you'll find your sponsor, and and you don't like that, you know, somebody might allow umselves to not ask a potential sponsor to work with them. Because, well, I don't want to start something. I don't know, I don't know. Well, with a with a sponsor, you don't have to worry. You can say to your new temporary sponsor or anybody, or the sponsor you have is like, hey, I really appreciate what you've done for me, but I'm gonna work with George now. So thanks. It was great. I'm gonna work with George. No harm, no foul. The cool thing about AA is no guilt, no shame. You almost can't do anything wrong. And and so the the sponsor that you worked with for two weeks will say, Great, have a blast. Good luck. George is a great guy. I'll probably say something like that, and you're on. And the the uh the jumping in with both feet, going to lots of meetings, talking to lots of people that that sound like they they've got good recovery.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

It is cool. What what is it like for you in these workshops when you see like a light bulb go off, when you see like the change happen? You know, when you see those like aha moments, or like, you know, you like the face, you you know the face, but you're just like, oh, like, you know, or I can do this, like this is attainable, like this is achievable for me. You know, what is that like for you?

SPEAKER_00 40:51

There's almost nothing better in the world to participate in someone else's recovery because we're talking life or death. So lives pivot on epiphanies. You have an epiphany and that's it. It's like, oh, oh the realization dawns on someone about wow, that there it is. That's there's the missing piece, there's part of the puzzle, there's a there's an un there's a new understanding. So for me as a workshop facilitator, there's probably nothing better. I I mean, yeah, I like it. I really like seeing it a lot. Thanks. That was a great question, Kat.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

And I do you ever get, I'm curious, um people who follow up with you maybe months down the road about their how they're still they're still doing like a story of their success. Do you ever get that?

SPEAKER_00 41:57

Absolutely. Oh my gosh, you know, one of the one of the guys that that I went through the the material with, he worked at a local rehab. And he just took the ball and ran with it. So he was the he was the guy that did like the first week orientation. Uh one of the things he did was the first week orientation, and he started, he he broke down sobriety breakthrough for the for he broke it up for the first five days. And and it was exciting because prior to that, according to him, they didn't have a um an introduction to taking the 12 steps that gave as many um aha moments. Like he he expressed how much he loved to see the newcomer go, oh my gosh, yes. So yeah, that that was really cool. Um he wrote a nice review on Amazon as a result of that experience, and it it's like right in there, and it's it's it's really remarkable.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Now, when it comes to like to running um these workshops, because you have your website sobriety breakthrough. Um are they workshops that are specifically run through you? Or is it like a are they run in different rehabs or different there there are rehabs that that do them?

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Um and and I run them from time to time in a variety of locations. I'm looking to do um Zoom uh meetings uh soon or or uh YouTube meetings soon, but I haven't started that yet. Right. But the cool thing is you don't you You know, when I'm going into a workshop I have this uh awareness that part of my responsibility when I'm leading a workshop with sobriety breakthrough is to reinforce the idea that you don't need me. You know, for ten bucks you can go get an ebook and run it right away. You don't need me to do it. I like doing it. I love doing it. And and I'll probably continue to do it in workshops around the country and sober cruises or or or events. I will continue to do it, but um the important thing to me is that you don't need me to do it. That that's how the book was created.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Do you think part of um part of your accelerated program um with another newcomer working with another newcomer is it gets them used to working with another alcoholic? It gets them used to working with a sponsor, so there isn't that some of that intimidation is is removed a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 45:13

It's almost magical. It's almost magical when you work with someone else with a common goal to recover from this deadly disease of alcoholism. There's a real magic. So when you select a a partner to work with, you want to be sure. Like, I don't recommend that you talk to people who are still drinking or people who are not committed to recovery. It doesn't you could take your sponsor through this. I mean, but it doesn't matter um how no, let me rephrase that. What matters is how much they want it. If you have a strong heartfelt desire, whether it comes from desperation or that you just want to rebuild your family and your career and your health and all that, doesn't matter where the motivation comes from, but if you have a sufficient desire to overcome alcoholism, you simply need to find someone else that has that same desire. That's all that's necessary. It doesn't matter how much sobriety they have. Although I would not try to uh take somebody who's still in their cups or still in still active. I wouldn't I wouldn't try to do that because it's not the right, it's not the right focus. Right. When there's an alignment on the desire, then then there's real magic is possible.

SPEAKER_02 46:55

Right. Right. And then to be clear, you're not at this is not something that you're gonna go through like, you know, when you're still drinking. It's something that you have to you still have to take work. Don't let accelerated confuse you that it's not gonna take work. It's still gonna take work.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

Gonna take work.

SPEAKER_02 47:13

It's gonna take work. And I I I for I I personally like the book because it it makes it it breaks it down, like I said, piece by piece, so it's a little more digestible. It's a nice it was I found it a nice foundation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

It had I had to abbreviate um a lot of a lot of the work so that it could be digested in a day. True. A lifetime of work. But it's it's that the whole idea is the good start, getting a great start. Because without it, what if you delay if you're to the alcoholic that's out there that that hears this and is not has not had like the insight, understanding, the epiphany that they they haven't had the psychic change yet, then I would encourage them to move quickly into step taking. Whatever method. Because there's no benefit for the delay. If if you hear somebody say something like, Well, you just take one step a year or something like that, it's like that's crazy, right? Yeah, or there's no reason to wait, or like I hear people say, Well, oh, I'm not ready for that. It's like you're not ready for what? I don't I don't even understand that because my experience tells me I've had plenty of people walk in to one of these workshops in their first week. Yeah, in their first week of sobrati, somebody says, Hey, you want to go to a 12-step workshop? Yeah, okay, yeah, I'll do that. I don't know any better, I'll just go. And they go and they go, Oh my god, you know, then boom, light bulb flight up. Yeah, yeah, no reason for delay.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

And that light bulb going off can can be the difference so often between you know coming back and not coming back.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

You know, the fear is that the desperation that got you in the door dissipates before you take action. Yeah, so that would be like my main thing. Don't let the desperation dissipate before you take action. Take action when you really want it. When you see your job going away, or you see your health is failing, your family's leaving you, or you're already alone sitting in a hotel room, and you think, Oh god, what am I gonna do? There's there's um there's an understanding around the rooms of of AA, and I touched on it, but the whole thing is that when you clean up your insides, your outsides will manifest your inner condition. There's no better way for an alcoholic to clean up their insides than step taking. That's where it happens. And you you might say, well, uh I look at this and there's there's God mentions, and and not everybody is wants to run into a religious program, and and I think I dealt with that in in the best way possible. To leave it open enough and universal enough that regardless of your if you have a God problem or you don't have any experience with religion, there there's no there's no religion in here. No, it it's all open, it's completely universal. You take what you have, maybe you have a traditional faith that's working, great. Use that. Maybe you want to use some new conception that you hadn't considered before. There'll be ideas in there, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

And I I don't I don't think it can be underestimated what an undertaking this was to do what you did. Um, because the big book is not small. You know, the the 12-step book is is small, but it's it's not, you know, you you made it. It's a lot of work. I just want to acknowledge that this was a lot of work um that you put into this um the sobriety breakthrough book. It's a lot of work. It looks very simple when you pick it up. It looks very, you know, but I don't want people to be confused. That's a lot of work that you put into this book. Um, and I think that speaks volumes to you as a recovery coach on what you've seen, what you've witnessed, um, and your passion for wanting to help the newcomer succeed, you know. And and I think that in itself, just making the book is a very powerful message to about you, you know. That's what I got out of it because that that's I see that book, and that's a lot of work. That's a lot of work, that's a lot of effort, that's a lot of heart. And I I loved it because and it was and it's a it's a larger print, too, you know, and it makes it very easy to read. Um, and I highly, I personally recommend it for anyone. New recovery, 10 years of recovery, it's not gonna hurt you to pick it up. You know, I don't think there's it's only gonna benefit you. You know, and I I think I think if you're in recovery, it's definitely worth picking up. Um not gonna lose anything. It's always good to have it's always good to have those reminders in different ways. You know, you can get I I've met plenty of people in recovery of 20, 30 years and it gets stale sometimes. You know, they go through the motions. And I think I haven't talked to anyone about this book that far along in recovery, but I imagine it'd be nice to have it presented in a different way, you know. I don't think it's a I don't think there's anything lost here. Um, so thank you for the effort that you put into this book. Um with all your experience as a recovery coach. Really imagine all that you've seen, all that you've gone through. And with that, is there anything you want to leave us with? Any last bit of insight or wisdom?

SPEAKER_00 53:53

Well, I I want to thank you for the acknowledgement, and I want to acknowledge my partner, Suzanne. Uh I wrote a lot. Uh I rewrote these chapters over and over many, many times. And she helped me finally get it to production. So, you know, there I have a saint in my life uh that that is really good and uh encouragement. You know, I appreciate the encouragement I got from my family and and my friends in the community. And and thank you for what you do here, Kat.

SPEAKER_02 54:32

Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Trying to help one less person, you know, struggle a little bit. You know, just trying to it reaches one person, I know it's settled off. I help one person, but yeah, that one person has such a ripple effect on so many other people.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

I feel that way too. If one person uses this and has an epiphany and their life turns around, my life is complete.

SPEAKER_02 54:59

Yeah, and it's a beautiful thing when you see someone recover and their life comes back, they come back online, you know. That's what this is about. I want to thank you for taking the time with me today. Um, thank you for sharing your nearly three decades of experience and your insights on moving past the early hurdles and engaging with the 12 steps, intention, and speed. I believe that this book can be a lifeline uh for a lot of people. And that's just my personal opinion, but I believe it can be a lifeline for a lot of people. Um, and if you want to learn more about John and his workshops, you can pick up the sobriety breakthrough workbook or sign up for his newsletter and upcoming events at sobrietybreakthrough.com. You can also purchase sobriety breakthrough years of recovery progress in one day on Amazon. It's on Kindle too, which is great. Kindle is very helpful. Um thank you so much for tuning in and sticking with me. You can find all the show links, notes, and guest information on my Podbean site, which is unityork.podbean.com. It'll also be in the show notes as well as how to reach out to John, uh connect with him. Um and the best way to support the show is by hitting the subscribe button and leaving a positive review. I want to thank everyone for listening. I want to thank John again for being here, taking the time to talk with us. And that wraps it up for today.

SPEAKER_00 56:30

You do good work.

SPEAKER_02 56:31

Thank you.