“Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” This is step 10. One of the implications here is that we are going to be “wrong” at times. It also does not give us the luxury to wallow in this wrong. We are to admit our wrong promptly and with an apology. We don’t want to accumulate another list of people that we owe an amends to. Our goal is to keep our side of the street clean when dealing with others.
In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous on page 84 it states “Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear. WHEN these crop up we ask God at once to remove them.” So, you see we are still going to have to be vigilant and be aware when we experience any of these things. The good news is that we now have the tools to deal with them. We learned these tools in the first nine steps of the program. Step 10 helps us to dispense with them quickly. The Big Book then says that after dealing with these defects we “resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help.”
At times we may need to discuss these new defects with our sponsor or a closed mouth friend. The Book also recommends that we do this when necessary. It also says that we “make amends quickly.” We can pause throughout out day and do a spot check inventory of how we are behaving and treating others. If we are ok with that, we continue our day. It is recommended that we take a step 10 inventory when retiring at night. We review our day and our thoughts and behavior. Was I self-centered or not today? Some defects of character may be harder to dispense with than others. We just keep on trudging through them and after a while we will find that they have diminished.
Remember that we are not rendered as white as snow through the process of the steps. We are given a way to deal with objectionable things when they crop up. Step 10 is critical in keeping us in fit spiritual condition. As long as we remain fit spiritually, we will remain sober. But if we get off track and start running our life on self-will again, we may very well find ourselves drinking and using. The Book also states that the “spiritual life is not a theory, we have to live it.” Step 10 helps to keep us on track spiritually. The step also states that what we really have is a “daily reprieve (from drinking) contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.” That’s why it is so important to have step 10 become part of our daily life. It helps to keep us on the right track as we trudge the road of happy destiny.
