"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 his life until
self-searching becomes a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept
what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is
wrong.
When a drunk has a terrific hangover because he drank
heavily yesterday, he 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 house cleanings. 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 His 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 knew
what he was talking about once remarked that pain was the touchstone of all
spiritual progress. How heartily we A.A.'s can agree with him, 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 person concerned not being present, we thought we were helping others to understand him, when in actuality our true motive was to feel superior by pulling him 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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