Working The Steps - Step Ten

STEP TEN

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

Essay

My share on Step Ten: It was April of 2005 when I finished my Step Ten questions out of the OA Workbook. My sponsor gave me another list of questions that would become my daily Step Ten Inventory. I had no idea how much this simple list of questions would affect me. For the absolute first time in my entire adult life, I was held accountable for my DAILY thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Sounds like prison, right? It was the direct opposite for me. This daily inventory FREED me to become the person that I had always wanted to be. All my adult life, I wanted to be a sane, mature, healthy person doing the right thing and having good, positive thoughts and feelings, but I never knew how.

A daily Step Ten inventory made me so aware of what I was thinking, how I was feeling and the resulting behaviors. Day in and day out, I reviewed my life for the day. What did I do well? Where was there need for improvement? What was troubling me? Did I do something wrong? Did I treat myself with TLC? These questions forced me to acknowledge what I had run from for sooooo very long. Up until program in OA, I had ignored or run from all my problems, but I had also refused to see my good points. These simple questions changed all of that. In doing a daily inventory, I am facing who I am, what I am doing and what needs to be changed. I am also facing how well I am progressing, my good points and making sure that I am treating myself with all the care I deserve. When I first began the daily inventory, I thought it was a miracle! No longer is there any need to carry the burden of my guilt, my shame and my remorse of the day. Whatever needs to be faced, I do with the help of my Higher Power and my sponsor. Together we can do what we could never do alone! I am free to learn from my mistakes and to move forward with my life. To keep myself abstinent and in good recovery, I was willing and still am willing to do a daily Step Ten Inventory.

My disease of addiction has no cure, but there is a treatment program that will allow me to stay in remission One Day At a Time. Steps Ten through Twelve are a necessary part of that treatment. I have been abstinent since June 1st, 2004, and the steps are the sole reason why.

Love in recovery,
Cindi L

Tenth Step Prayer:

Higher Power, I pray I may continue to grow in understanding and effectiveness; to take daily spot check inventories of myself; to correct mistakes when I make them; to take responsibility for my actions; to be ever aware of my negative and self-defeating attitudes and behaviors; to keep my willfulness in check; to always remember I need Your help; to keep love and tolerance of others as my code; and to continue in daily prayer how I can best serve You.

Principle of Step Ten:

In Step Ten we discovered the value of perseverance in working the Twelve Steps. Practicing this principle in all our affairs today means that we continue to do the things which have brought us healing, even though we sometimes wonder if we still need to. Perseverance brings us the reward of continuing, permanent recovery.
The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
of Overeaters Anonymous: Page 105
Study Guide:

To help comprehend the questions, please read The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of OA. Read the chapter on Step Ten, answer the questions, go back and reread the chapter and add onto your answers if needed.

You might also like to read in the BB of AA, pages 84 and 85 (Fourth Edition)

Exercise:

As part of a daily Step Ten Inventory, my sponsor gave me a list of questions that I was to ask myself. I review my day, answer the questions and send it to my sponsor. If there is a problem area, we discuss the matter and how I should proceed with the solution. I have done this daily since April of 2005.

Here are the questions to a daily Step Ten Inventory. Select a particular day (either today or the previous day) and proceed.

Questions:

1. Was I resentful today?

2. Was I selfish today?

3. Was I dishonest today?

4. Was I afraid today?

5. Do I owe an apology today?

6. Have I kept something to myself that should be discussed with another person at once today?

7. Was I thinking of myself most of the time today?

8. Was I kind and loving towards all today?

9. What could I have done better today?

10. Was I thinking of what I could do for others today?

11. What did I do well today?

12. Did I look after myself today?

Step Nine

Index

Step Eleven

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