Is "it works if you work it" in the Big Book?
In short:
- The saying itself is not in the 1939 program text or anywhere else in our sources in that form. The nearest wording anywhere in the Big Book is in a fourth-edition personal story, about praying for a person you resent: "it will work for me every time I am willing to work it" (p. 552).
- The program text's nearest wording is about prayer: "It works, if we have the proper attitude and work at it" (p. 86). Two pages later, at the end of the same daily practice: "It works—it really does" (p. 88).
- Elsewhere the text makes promises in the same spirit, each about something specific: the promises of Chapter 6 "will always materialize if we work for them" (p. 84), and work with other alcoholics "works when other activities fail" (p. 89).
- The many other "How It Works" lines in Chapter 5 are just the chapter's title printed at the top of its pages.
What the search found
All our sources were searched for "works if you work," "if you work it," "work it," "it works," "work at it" and "really works."
The exact saying doesn't turn up. In Chapter 5 "HOW IT WORKS" is the running head printed at the top of every other page, not a sentence.
The places in the program text where something is said to work: - Bill, about working with other alcoholics when he was low: "It is a design for living that works in rough going" (p. 15). - Chapter 2: a new life has been given us or, if you prefer, "a design for living" that "really works" (p. 28). - Chapter 6, the promises: "They will always materialize if we work for them" (p. 84). - Chapter 6, Step Eleven: prayer "works, if we have the proper attitude and work at it" (p. 86). - Chapter 6, the end of Step Eleven: "It works—it really does" (p. 88). - Chapter 7, the opening: intensive work with other alcoholics "works when other activities fail" (p. 89).
In the personal stories, one fourth-edition writer ends: "I keep coming back because it works" (p. 374). Another, in "Freedom From Bondage" (Part III), comes closest to the saying. She describes being freed of a resentment by praying every day for the person she resented, as a clergyman's article advised, and says: "It worked for me then, and it has worked for me many times since, and it will work for me every time I am willing to work it." (p. 552). Like the program text's own nearest line (p. 86), it is about a particular practice of prayer, and it is one member's words in a later edition, not program text. Pass It On (1984) says some members thought Works Publishing, the company formed to publish the book, was named after a favorite slogan of the membership, "It works!" (Pass It On, 1984). Others said it came from "Faith without works is dead."
The nearest line, read in context
The line on p. 86 comes at the start of the book's directions for Step Eleven. "We shouldn't be shy on this matter of prayer. Better men than we are using it constantly. It works, if we have the proper attitude and work at it" (pp. 85–86). The "it" is prayer. The book follows with exactly what the work is (pp. 86–88): - At night, review the day: were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time, "Or were we thinking of what we could do for others" (p. 86)? Then ask God's forgiveness and what should be put right. - On waking, think about the day ahead and ask God to direct our thinking, especially that it be free of self-pity and dishonest or self-seeking motives (p. 86). - When unsure what to do, ask for inspiration, relax, and "don't struggle" (p. 86). - End the morning's meditation asking to be shown the next step through the day, and be careful "never to pray for our own selfish ends" (p. 87). - During the day, when agitated or doubtful, pause and ask for the right thought or action, saying many times each day "Thy will be done" (pp. 87–88).
Then: "It works—it really does" (p. 88). The next lines say this isn't all: "There is action and more action" (p. 88), and the next chapter is about carrying the message.
So the closest the book comes to the saying is a promise about one daily practice, prayer and self-review, with the conditions spelled out: "the proper attitude" and working at it.
What the saying gets right and what it leaves out
The idea that results depend on doing the work runs all through the text. The promises "will always materialize if we work for them" (p. 84). The chapter on the Steps opens by saying the writers have rarely "seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path" (p. 58), and "Half measures availed us nothing" (p. 59).
What the short slogan leaves out is what the text names as the source of the result. Chapter 6 says the new attitude toward liquor "has been given us without any thought or effort on our part" (p. 85), and that it lasts "so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition" (p. 85). Chapter 5 says faith "did for us what we could not do for ourselves" (pp. 70–71). In the book, the member does the work, and the work is what keeps him in the condition where the change is given.
See also: What do Steps 10 and 11 ask, day to day? and Where are "the Promises," and what do they promise?
Read it yourself
- Chapter 6, "Into Action" (pp. 84–88): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
- Chapter 7, "Working With Others" (p. 89): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
- Chapter 5, "How It Works" (pp. 58–71): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf
- The full book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Alcoholics Anonymous, whole fourth-edition text (searched) | — | 1939 text; fourth edition 2001 |
| Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 | 15, 28, 58–59, 70–71, 84–89 | 1939 |
| Personal stories, Parts II and III | 374, 552 | fourth edition (2001) |
| Pass It On (the Works Publishing name) | — | 1984; after 1950 |
Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition.
Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book and Pass It On are © A.A. World Services, Inc.
These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.