"Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it."

	As we work the first nine Steps, we prepare ourselves for the adventure of a new
life.  But when we approach Step Ten we commence to put our A.A. way of living to
practical use, day by day, in fair weather or foul.  Then comes the acid test:  can we stay
sober, keep in emotional balance, and live to good purpose under all conditions?
	A continuous look at our assets and liabilities, and a real desire to learn and grow
by this means, are necessities for us.  We alcoholics have learned this the hard way.  More
experienced people, of course, in all times and places have practiced unsparing self-survey
and criticism.  For the wise have always known that no one can make much of their life
until self-searching becomes a regular habit, until they are able to admit and accept what
they find, and until they patiently and persistently try to correct what is wrong.
	When a drunk has a terrific hangover because they drank heavily yesterday, they
cannot live well today.  But there is another kind of hangover which we all experience
whether we are drinking or not.  That is the emotional hangover, the direct result of
yesterday's and sometimes today's excesses of negative emotion -- anger, fear, jealousy,
and the like.  If we would live serenely today and tomorrow, we certainly need to
eliminate these hangovers.  This doesn't mean we need to wander morbidly around in the
past.  It requires an admission and correction of errors now.  Our inventory enables us to
settle with the past.  When this is done, we are really able to leave it behind us.  When our
inventory is carefully taken, and we have made peace with ourselves, the conviction
follows that tomorrow's challenges can be met as they come.
	Although all inventories are alike in principle, the time factor does distinguish one
from another.  There's the spot-check inventory, taken at any time of the day, whenever
we find ourselves getting tangled up.  There's the one we take at day's end, when we
review the happenings of the hours just past.  Here we cast up a balance sheet, crediting
ourselves with things well done, and chalking up debits where due.   Then there are those
occasions when alone, or in the company of our sponsor or spiritual adviser, we make a
careful review of our progress since the last time.  Many A.A.'s go in for annual or
semiannual housecleanings.  Many of us also like the experience of an occasional retreat
from the outside world where we can quiet down for an undisturbed day or so of
self-overhaul and meditation.
	Aren't these practices joy-killers as well as time-consumers?  Must A.A.'s spend
most of their waking hours drearily rehashing their sins of omission or commission?  Well,
hardly.  The emphasis on inventory is heavy only because a great many of us have never
really acquired the habit of accurate self-appraisal.  Once this healthy practice has become
grooved, it will be so interesting and profitable that the time it takes won't be missed.  For
these minutes and sometimes hours spent in self-examination are bound to make all the
other hours of our day better and happier.  And at length our inventories become a regular
part of everyday living, rather than something unusual or set apart.
	Before we ask what a spot-check inventory is, let's look at the kind of setting in
which such an inventory can do its work.
	It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause,
there is something wrong with us.  If somebody hurts us and we are sore, we are in the
wrong also.  But are there no exceptions to this rule?  What about "justifiable" anger?  If
somebody cheats us, aren't we entitled to be mad?  Can't we be properly angry with
self-righteous folk?  For us of A.A. these are dangerous exceptions.  We have found that
justified anger ought to be left to those better qualified to handle it.
	Few people have been more victimized by resentments than have we alcoholics.  It
mattered little whether our resentments were justified or not.  A burst of temper could
spoil a day, and a well-nursed grudge could make us miserably ineffective.  Nor were we
ever skillful in separating justified from unjustified anger.  As we saw it, our wrath was
always justified.  Anger, that occasional luxury of more balanced people, could keep us on
an emotional jag indefinitely.  These emotional "dry benders" often led straight to the
bottle.  Other kinds of disturbances -- jealousy, envy, self-pity, or hurt pride -- did the
same thing.
	A spot-check inventory taken  in the midst of such disturbances  can be of very
great help in quieting stormy emotions.  Today's spot check finds its chief application to
situations which arise in each day's march.  The consideration of long-standing difficulties
had better be postponed, when possible, to times deliberately set aside for that purpose. 
The quick inventory is aimed at our daily ups and downs, especially those where people or
new events throw us off balance and tempt us to make mistakes.
	In all these situations we need self-restraint, honest analysis of what is involved, a
willingness to admit when the fault is ours, and an equal willingness to forgive when the
fault is elsewhere.  We need not be discouraged when we fall into the error of our old
ways, for these disciplines are not easy.  We shall look for progress, not for perfection.
	Our first objective will be the development of self-restraint.  This carries a top
priority rating.  When we speak or act hastily or rashly, the ability to be fair-minded and
tolerant evaporates on the spot.  One unkind tirade or one willful snap judgment can ruin
our relation with another person for a whole day, or maybe a whole year.  Nothing pays
off like restraint of tongue and pen.  We must avoid quick-tempered criticism and furious,
power-driven argument.  The same goes for sulking or silent scorn.  These are emotional
booby traps baited with pride and vengefulness.  Our first job is to sidestep the traps. 
When we are tempted by the bait, we should train ourselves to step back and think.  For
we can neither think nor act to good purpose until the habit of self-restraint has become
automatic.
	Disagreeable or unexpected problems are not the only ones that call for
self-control.  We must be quite as careful when we begin to achieve some measure of
importance and material success.  For no people have ever loved personal triumphs more
than we have loved them;  we drank of success as of a wine which could never fail to
make us feel elated.  When temporary good fortune came our way, we indulged ourselves
in fantasies of still greater victories over people and circumstances.  Thus blinded by
prideful self-confidence, we were apt to play the big shot.  Of course, people turned away
from us, bored or hurt.
	Now that we're in A.A. and sober, and winning back the esteem of our friends and
business associates, we find that we still need to exercise special vigilance.  As an
insurance against "big-shot-ism" we can often check ourselves by remembering that we are
today sober only by the grace of God and that any success we may be having is far more
God's success than ours.
	Finally, we begin to see that all people, including ourselves, are to some extent
emotionally ill as well as frequently wrong, and then we approach true tolerance and see
what real love for our fellows actually means.  It will become more and more evident as
we go forward that it is pointless to become angry, or to get hurt by people who, like us,
are suffering from the pains of growing up.
	Such a radical change in our outlook will take time, maybe a lot of time.  Not
many people can truthfully assert that they love everybody.  Most of us must admit that
we have loved but a few;  that we have been quite indifferent to the many so long as none
of them gave us trouble;  and as for the remainder -- well, we have really disliked or hated
them.  Although these attitudes are common enough, we A.A.'s find we need something
much better in order to keep our balance.  We can't stand it if we hate deeply.  The idea
that we can be possessively loving of a few, can ignore the many, and can continue to fear
or hate anybody, has to be abandoned, if only a little at a time.
	We can try to stop making unreasonable demands upon those we love.  We can
show kindness where we had shown none.  With those we dislike we can begin to practice
justice and courtesy, perhaps going out of our way to understand and help them.
	Whenever we fail any of these people, we can promptly admit it -- to ourselves
always, and to them also, when the admission would be helpful.  Courtesy, kindness,
justice, and love are the keynotes by which we may come into harmony with practically
anybody.  When in doubt we can always pause, saying, "Not my will, but Thine, be done." 
And we can often ask ourselves, "Am I doing to others as I would have them do to me --
today?"
	When evening comes, perhaps just before going to sleep, many of us draw up a
balance sheet for the day.  This is a good place to remember that inventory-taking is not
always done in red ink.  It's a poor day indeed when we haven't done something right.  As
a matter of fact, the waking hours are usually well filled with things that are constructive. 
Good intentions, good thoughts, and good acts are there for us to see.  Even when we
have tried hard and failed, we may chalk that up as one of the greatest credits of all. 
Under these conditions, the pains of failure are converted into assets.  Out of them we
receive the stimulation we need to go forward.  Someone who understood once remarked
that pain was the touchstone of all spiritual progress.  How heartily we A.A.'s can agree,
for we know that the pains of drinking had to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil
before serenity.
	As we glance down the debit side of the day's ledger, we should carefully examine
our motives in each thought or act that appears to be wrong.  In most cases our motives
won't be hard to see and understand.  When prideful, angry, jealous, anxious, or fearful,
we acted accordingly, and that was that.  Here we need only recognize that we did act or
think badly, try to visualize how we might have done better, and resolve with God's help
to carry these lessons over into tomorrow, making, of course, any amends still neglected.
	But in other instances only the closest scrutiny will reveal what our true motives
were.  There are cases where our ancient enemy, rationalization, has stepped in and has
justified conduct which was really wrong.  The temptation here is to imagine that we had
good motives and reasons when we really didn't.
	We "constructively criticized" someone who needed it, when our real motive was
to win a useless argument.  Or, the persons concerned not being present, we thought we
were helping others to understand them, when in actuality our true motive was to feel
superior by pulling someone else down.  We sometimes hurt those we love because they
need to be "taught a lesson," when we really want to punish.  We were depressed and
complained we felt bad, when in fact we were mainly asking for sympathy and attention. 
This odd trait of mind and emotion, this perverse wish to hide a bad motive underneath a
good one, permeates human affairs from top to bottom.  This subtle and elusive kind of
self-righteousness can underlie the smallest act or thought.  Learning daily to spot, admit,
and correct these flaws is the essence of character-building and good living.  An honest
regret for harms done, a genuine gratitude for blessings received, and a willingness to try
for better things tomorrow will be the permanent assets we shall seek.
	Having so considered our day, not omitting to take due note of things well done,
and having searched our hearts with neither fear nor favor, we can truly thank God for the
blessings we have received and sleep in good conscience.

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