Step 10 and 11

[tyg]

Wondering how popular it is to continue our daily inventories with pen & paper; or on Keyboard to Computer

Step 10:
"Continued to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along pg 84"

Page 86 Step 11:
"When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others."

[PaigeB]

I did hear a speaker who did write out their 10th Step, I think for a year or something like that. He also called someone right after. I am up too late to call someone, LOL. But I did try to write out a 10th Step - it just kept me awake later. So I tried to write out a Spot Check during the day and did that for a few weeks, but alas, my life moves to fast for me to be journalling while it all happens around me!

After the condensed practice of writing inventory which I did in Step 4 and a couple of obstinate resentments that I did a 4 (written) on, I have only been able to do a 10th in my head, unless I need to call my sponsor.

Is there a suggestion anywhere of a written 11th? Maybe I missed that directive.

[tyg]

No, there are no specific directions to continue writing out our daily inventories. With Step 4 we took inventory and AA says to get this all down on paper so we cannot be fooled by values. The book states, "Businesses which takes no regular inventory usually goes broke" and goes on to say, "If an owner is to be successful , he cannot fool himself about values." Businesses take their inventories and get it all on paper/computer, not by memory. Too easy to miss something if everything was not logged down to review and analyze all the facts.

So, I got curious about how many put down on paper their review of the day before they retire for the night.

[D'oh]

No, there are no specific directions to continue writing out our daily inventories. With Step 4 we took inventory and AA says to get this all down on paper so we cannot be fooled by values

It is more of a Have a look around the shop as you shut the door. The drill is still there, the keys to the service truck, and no one is crying in the corner.

[Brock]

I really like the voting booth, very neat and professional.

On the question of why I wouldn't write anything down, in my case it's because not only the book doesn’t say that, but because I believe if we practice 10 properly, it almost leaves nothing to review. As D'oh said a quick look, but if I have put things in place during the day as 10 says, it's just a check that I in fact did so. Ten says -

This thought 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. …

So I believe when we get proficient at that, before we retire we just think if we missed anything or not. Someone said here, that on retiring his main thought was whether he had learned anything that day, I like this, especially if I am looking for where I advanced spiritually, usually again tied to how well I practiced 10 & 11 during the day. The nights when we can smile in contentment before falling asleep, I find at the end of a day when I have done these steps well.

[whipping post]

I just do a quick thought as others have mentioned.

I have not had a situation yet where I felt I had something I needed to address after the end of a day. When I get into a situation where I am going to owe an amend I know it pretty quickly. It kind of hangs with me and I try to get it taken care of quickly to get it off my back.

As far as reviewing how much I thought of others, what was good, etc.. I need to work on that.

[ezdzit247]

Interesting topic.

I have never put pen to paper and written out any daily 10th Step personal inventories. I generally do a mental review of my day sometime before 10 pm, but I save the formal written inventories for my annual 4th Step, usually sometime around my AA birthday.

I liked what D'oh posted:

It is more of a Have a look around the shop as you shut the door. The drill is still there, the keys to the service truck, and no one is crying in the corner.

LOL..... Works for me!

[Wiganman]

I do a daily journal / diary that is based around step ten. I just list the following words down one side; resentful, fearful, selfish, dishonest, owe apology, angry and write down any comments (usually it is not today). On the other side I answer the following questions; who did I help, what did I achieve and what was good about today.

Then under this I write how I felt that day.

This is a useful tracker of your state of mind. Sometimes if I have a bad day I will write on the top of the page "Awful day!". I then look back through my journal and look for my previous bad day and usually find it was maybe 20 days ago. This puts a bad day into prespective, it is just one day and it passes, tomorrow is a new day. Usually its a bad day because of something I could have done differently which I capture in this tenth step and correct the next day.

This process really works for me.