Here are the steps we took....

Again from  A Member's-Eye View of Alcoholics Anonymous:

In A.A., the reporting is clear and unmistakeable.  "Here are the steps we took," say those who have gone before.  The newcomer finally sees that he, too, must take these Steps before he is entitled to report on them.  And in an atmosphere where the constant subject is "What I did" and "What I think," no neurotic can long resist the temptation to get in on the action.  In an organization whose members are always secretly convinced that they are unique, no neurotic is long going to be contented with a report of what others are doing.  Whether by accident or design or supernatural guidance, the Twelve Steps are so framed and presented that the alcoholic can either ignore them completely, take them cafeteria-style, or embrace them wholeheartedly.  In any case, he can report only on what he has done.  Till he does, he knows that he is more a guest of A.A. than a member, and this is a situation that is finally intolerable to the alcoholic.  He must take at least some of the Steps, or go away.  In my opinion, this is the answer to finally rubs off on the waiting, inactive, often hostile A.A. member, and also the answer as to why it happens.

It's always a fascinating and wonderful thing, to me, when peoples' own flaws and character defects are the very things that ultimately break down their resistance and allow them the possibility of recovery....