AA Fourth Step Tutorial

Alcoholics Anonymous helps people overcome their addiction to alcohol with the use of a 12-step recovery program. The organization's "Big Book" provides more information for each of the steps. Pages 63 to 71 cover the guidelines for Step Four, which requires taking a moral inventory. The worksheets for Step Four have been used unofficially by AA members for decades. Essentially, this step is about identifying your strengths and weaknesses so you can begin to take responsibility for yourself and your behavior.

Things You'll Need

• paper
• pen
• ruler

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Instructions

Strengths And Weaknesses

• 1

  Check off all that apply to you on the moral inventory checklist. Ensure that you check off at least twice as many strengths as weaknesses or you could be just beating yourself up. The complete list is quite extensive and can be accessed in the Resources section below. Some examples: Angry vs. forgiving, critical vs. tolerant, deceitful vs. honest, irresponsible vs. reliable, and self-justifying vs. admitting wrongs. Choose the best example you can think of for each weakness you listed, completing one at a time. If you checked off "critical", for example, try to think of whom or what you criticize. Give an example of someone or something you criticize often. Choose the best example you can think of for each strength you checked off, completing one at a time. If you checked off "responsible," write down an example, such as paying your rent each month, paying child support, obeying traffic laws, being on time for appointments, or caring for pets.

• 2

  Check off resentments that apply to you. Under the heading "people", there are family members, employers, friends, spouse, doctors, and many more. Under "institutions", you will find the government, educational systems, correctional systems, health/mental health systems, the law, a church, or a specific company/agency/organization. Under "principles", there are adultery, death, heaven, hell, the golden rule, the ten commandments and several others.

• 3

  Draw four columns on a horizontal piece of paper approximately 8-inches by 11-inches using a ruler and a pen. The first column starting at the far left of the page should be about two inches wide. Over this column, at the top of the page, write "I am resentful at". The second column should be about four inches wide. Put "the cause" at the top of the page above this column. Make the third column about two inches wide and put "affects my" at the top of the page over this column. Make the fourth column about two inches wide. Put "my own mistakes" over the fourth column.

  As an example, you could write that you are resentful toward your employer in the first column. After asking yourself why you are resentful, you could put "because he doesn't pay me enough'' or "won't promote me" for the second column. For the third column, ask yourself how that resentment hurts you or interferes with your life in some way. In the fourth column, write your weaknesses that led to the resentment, such as fear of failure or being self-seeking. The purpose of this step is to recognize weaknesses in oneself so that you can change yourself to reduce feeling resentful toward others, which, in turn, will reduce anger, criticism, and other negative feelings and behavior.

• 4

  Face your fears. After reviewing the section that describes different types of fears, on another piece of paper, 8 -inches wide by 11-inches long, make two vertical columns with a pen and ruler by dividing the page with one line. The first column should be about three inches wide and the the second column should be about five inches wide. Put "I'm fearful of" over the first column and write "why do I have this fear" over the second column. List a fear that is a problem in your life in the first column and then write why you have that fear in the second column. As an example, you could put something like "I am afraid of losing my job" and then put "because the company lays off people fairly often and I don't have a lot of seniority." When you are able to overcome your fears in healthy ways, then you should be able to reduce negative feelings and weaknesses.

• 5

  The last checklist pertains to sexual behavior. You ask yourself if you have ever hurt anyone because of your sexual conduct, and how you may have hurt someone. Have you ever been selfish, dishonest, or inconsiderate of another person to meet your own needs, and how so? Ask yourself if you ever aroused suspicion, jealousy, or bitterness without cause. You need to determine whether you were selfish, self-seeking, deceitful, afraid, thoughtless or uncaring. Finally, ask yourself how you could have treated the person differently and resolve to treat everyone with respect from now on.