Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
No one can make much of his life until self-searching becomes a regular habit.
The time factor does come into play:
1. The spot check inventory.
2. The one at day’s end – before retiring at night.
3. Upon awakening – perhaps a gratitude list text over morning coffee.
4. Making regular calls daily to another alcoholic-throughout the day, which helps to understand what times are good to get through with a live call and not voicemail. I was surprised that calling early or late was the best time to make the call.
“Give me a call when you get this message” as a good priority voicemail in getting feedback with a return call.
5. Annual or Semi-Annual housecleaning.
6. Separating justified and unjustified anger. I certainly believed being justified in my anger was a free pass.
7. Entitlements for being mad for being cheated. When I looked at my ledger, I found a mirror and looked at the man in the glass:
The Man in the Glass
When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.
For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.
He’s the fellow to please – never mind all the rest
For he’s with you, clear to the end
And you’ve passed your most difficult, dangerous test
If the man in the glass is your friend.
You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.
8. The emotional dry benders. Keeping us on an emotional jag indefinitely.
9. Constructive criticism as a means to win a useless argument.
10. Looking at the Fear behind the Resentment or Anger.
