The 12 Steps - Back to Basics of Recovery
Step X - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Many of the A.A. pioneers described Steps Ten, Eleven and Twelve as the Guidance Steps. In Step Ten, we are guided to take Steps Four through Nine on a daily basis. In Step Eleven, we follow the guidance we receive during our morning meditation and throughout the day. In Step Twelve, we let the “Power greater than ourselves” guide us as we work with others.

The key to the Tenth Step is the word “continue.” In the second paragraph on page 84, the “Big Book” authors emphasize the importance of continuing to take the Steps:

This . . . brings us to Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.

Please note that starting with this paragraph, the authors dramatically change the wording of the book. Until this point, they have used words such as, “next,” “at once,” “immediately,” and “we waste no time” to stress the importance of taking the first nine steps quickly. Now, at Step Ten they tell us that this part of the program will take time–in fact a “lifetime.”

The statement, “We have entered the world of the Spirit,” provides an amazing revelation. Basically, the authors have just informed us that our lives have already been transformed as the result of taking Steps One through Nine. Because we have done “certain simple things, there has been a revolutionary change in (our) way of living and thinking.”

Next, the “Big Book” authors review the inventory and restitution process we use to remain spiritually connected to the “One who has all power.” Because they are reexamining Steps Four through Nine, they once again tell us to take these steps “promptly and without regret:”

Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resent-ment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code.

In this passage, the “Big Book” authors provide us with a test we can use to separate self-will from God’s will. The test for God’s will comes from the Oxford Group, the organization from which A.A. evolved. It consists of Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness and Love.

In the “Big Book”, the authors reverse these “assets” and present them to us as “liabilities” or manifestations of self. Self-will is the opposite of God’s will and is characterized by “selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear.” These are the same liabilities described in Step Four on pages 64-69.

Let’s recap what the “Big Book” authors have just written. “When these (the Step Four liabilities of selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear) crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. (Steps Six and Seven). We discuss them with someone (our sponsor or sharing partner) immediately (Step Five), and make amends quickly (Steps Eight and Nine) if we have harmed anyone.

The “Big Book” authors state that if we follow this process on a daily basis, the Power greater than human power will remove our obsession to drink. This is another of the many promises we find throughout the text of the “Big Book.” In the third paragraph on page 84, they write:

And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone—even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally and we will find that this has happened automatically. . . . We have not even sworn off. Instead the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. . . . That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.

How do we “keep in fit spiritual condition?” By taking a daily inventory. What is our reward? A daily reprieve.

The directions for taking the Tenth Step are in the second paragraph on page 84. The Tenth Step question reads:

“Will you continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as you go along?”

If you can answer in the affirmative, you have taken Step Ten. Next session, we will look at Step Eleven, which has to do with prayer and meditation. Some A.A. pioneers called this process “two-way prayer.”