Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
As we begin to consider the questions below, we need to remember to keep it simple and pray for guidance and courage. The following are not all-inclusive, but rather point to a beginning.
IN PREPARING TO TAKE AN INVENTORY:
Am I willing to look honestly at myself? What stands in my way?
Have I sought help from my Higher Power, my sponsor or other Al-Anon members?
What suggestions have I tried to see if they might work?
Do I understand the spiritual principle of an inventory?
What do “searching” and “fearless” mean to me?
What does a “moral inventory” mean?
Those are simple questions, but it was important for me to answer them before I continued with this step.
Am I willing to look honestly at myself? What stands in my way?
My answer was simple. I was afraid of what I might find out. What if what all those things people said about me were true? What if I dug deep down inside and I didn't like what I found?? And if I didn't like what I found, THEN what??
This is where it helped me to have a sponsor and to talk with others in the program who had gone before me. They gently guided me to answer those questions... and then I started to do my inventory.
There are many ways to do an inventory.
Some people just start writing about their life, in a chronological order. There is a lot of emphasis placed on how things made you FEEL.
Others turn to the Blueprint for Progress as Moose suggested.
Still others use the questions found in Paths to Recovery. Those are the questions that I post here for each step. They are fairly straightforward and thought provoking.
How did you work yours?