His Step One was seeing reality for the first time without the lies and admitting to himself that he was addicted. 

Rigorous honesty means the ability to share a feeling or situation with another person in a truly unbiased statement of fact. Addicts like to gloss over and shade the truth of events and characterize them from their point of view without consideration for the other party or the reality of the event. 

For years, we have lied to ourselves and to others about our own actions, our own attitudes, and our own beliefs. Our whole life is one of delusion and deception. 

When we come to the stark reality of our addiction and are forced to admit that we are addicted (Step One), we realize that we can no longer lie and deceive ourselves or other people. We had to learn to change our behavior and be truthful to ourselves and others. This was not easy and in fact, is very difficult for us. We could only do it with the guidance of a Twelve-Step group and our sponsor. It was a slow process that sometimes took weeks and months. In the last analysis, it was the reality that finally came through to our understanding (Step Four). When we looked at ourselves as we really were and then (Step Five) admitted them to our sponsor.

Rigorous honesty means that we must recognize the reality of the situation, as it truly was, and not as we would like or hope that it was. We must recognize the truth and be honest with ourselves and with others about what happened and what our part in it was. Then, we must face the other party and make amends to them, acknowledging our faults and apologizing for our wrong behavior. We must acknowledge the truth and be able to recognize the events as they really happened and not as we imagined that they happened.