Continued to take personal inventory ? For how long ?

[SloganJack]

Hi How often ? Do we take these personal inventorys. How do you work this in to our daily program, I have heard AA's say it must be written down, i struggle to seek my own answers from doing this. Does the answer come with practice by writting an inventory every day and night. ? Look forward to hearing your views on this.

[dgillz]

I do not believe step 10 to be another full blown inventory like what you do in step 4. The way I treat it, as I am turning in for the night, I review the days events and see if somewhere along the line I did the wrong thing, or failed to carry AA principles inmy affairs that day.

How long do you do this? Forever. There is no step that says "Congratulations, you have graduated, don't let the doorknob hit you in the a$$".

Or as a buddy of mine says, there is no step that says "And then were-gained power over alcohol".

[SloganJack]

Thankyou for your comments. It has been suggested to me to take written inventorys and do it all the time with paper and pen. Write down the problem or feelings and look and see were i have been full of fear or selfish or inconsiderate. But what im saying is sometimes i find it really difficult if im full of these character defects or maybe not it can be difficult to come up with a solution at the end of inventory.

A lot of the time im not in contact with another human being and feel that theres no need to do an inventory and look at myself. AA's are saying it is not something you can do in your head i struggle to write anything down am i doing this correct or am i beating myself up for this not been done correct.

ive been sober since Feb 09, and out of everythnig to do with the program this writting down every day and night is difficult and i dont do it all the time and im told i should always work steps 10,11 and 12. Ive never sponcered anyone yet but ive did service in other ways. Is my own recovery in danger by this ? why do i feel resistence to take pen to paper everyday.

[freya]

For me, taking personal inventory everyday is absolutely essential. I mean, how else am I going to avoid piling up a big heap of unaddressed "garbage" that will sooner or later lead me right back into the same kind of thinking and acting that brought me into recovery in the first place??????

In most cases, taking a daily inventory -- or a spot inventory -- is pretty easy for me. Actually, it's pretty much habitual and reflexive as soon as I start to feel uncomfortable about something and/or disconnected from HP. The only time I write stuff down is if I can't easily and/or exactly put my finger on the problem and what's underlying it...because writing it down and, often, talking about it with someone else helps me to work it through and analyze it more thoroughly and carefully.

But, it seems to me like, for anyone who is relatively new and for whom taking daily/spot inventory is not a habit and who is not yet used to really looking at and dealing with his/her own sh*t as it comes up in daily life, writing it down is a good way to get in the habit and to learn how to really work through and understand exactly what is going on with him/herself when he/she behaves in ways that are not consistent with good recovery and/or the desire to live a HP centered life.

For now, you might really need to get input from your sponsor or some other trusted program person in order to really "work things through" and figure out what you need to do to address/amend stuff....but the longer you practice doing this, the more you will be able to just quickly and easily do it for/by yourself and the less often you will need to seek other's input.

But, really, the importance of taking your inventory on an at-least daily-basis cannot possibly be overstated. The better you get doing this, the less often you will need to be doing huge 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th Steps.

freya

[dgillz]

I don't really know how to respond. I fired my first sponsor because he rejected my first inventory because I typed it on my computer into MS Word. He told me to use pen and paper. My response was if AA had started during colonial times, would I be required to use a feather quill and ink well to write my inventory?

As my first inventory,it actually left a lot to be desired but the shortcomings of my first inventory had to do with content, not how it got written in the first place. That is a classic example of disagreeing with ones sponsor, when called for.

I do think we need to do steps 10-12 forever. I do not think we need to sponsor people, but 12th step work - carrying the message to others - is important.

Just MHO. Good luck and keep posting.

[freya]

One more thing -- as a former English professor, I can 100% guarantee you that people worrying about getting things down right -- in the sense of "correctly" -- on the first draft is the #1 cause of sh*ty, boring, pointless writing. When you are writing something that is basically for your own use, the sole purpose is to get it out of your head and onto a paper. This does not need to be some kind of big, time-consuming, stressful activity. You can just say to yourself: "I'm going to write for 5 minutes, without stopping, about whatever issues/things/behaviors came up for me and/or were problematic for me today."

Then just do it.

Sit there and write.

Do not stop; keep your pen/pencil moving constantly for the 5 minutes.

Do not think about spelling or grammar or handwriting or even making complete sentences. Just get the cr*p out. If it turns out that you have to share it with someone and you're the only person who can read it, then, fine, read it to that person. If that person can't handle it and expects for you to hand him/her some perfectly written sterling prose, find another person to help you. This is not about your becoming a renown writer or pleasing somebody else; this is about your staying sober -- physically, emotionally and spiritually!

.....and I can also promise you that it will be much, much easier if you stop trying to find reasons why you can't or shouldn't have to do it and just get on with doing it.

freya

P.S. The things you do that hurt yourself are every bit as important and subject to inventory as the things you do that hurt others. And, just FYI, isolating would be one of them.

[AW2486]

Originally Posted by SloganJack

Hi How often ? Do we take these personal inventorys. How do you work this in to our daily program,

I try to do this every night using the Big Book & the 11 step "when we retire at night" suggestions.

The Big Book gives clear directions on the 10th step. I did not know that and worked the 10th step using my own interpretation for along time. When I started using the BB directions it made a big difference in my sobriety.

I really like Sandy B on the 10th step. If we find our selves disturbed in any way, time to inventory, and work the steps.

[Cubile75]

When I am unsettled or anxious about something going on, anything... that's when I take inventory... On some days it may be constantly, other days I may have to remind myself to do so...

But very important is that prompt admission if we were wrong... that is the point right?

Being at peace with the world and ourselves allows us to be in constant contact with God... For this reason my spiritual fitness demands the 10th step.

Mark