Step 10: Maintenance

Study of the 12 Steps

Dateline: 08/12/98

Nobody likes to admit to being wrong. But it is absolutely necessary to maintain spiritual progress in recovery.

Step 10
Continued to take person inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step 10 may be one of the least popular of all the 12 steps, because it is simple no fun to be wrong and then have to admit it! But without this step, progress toward recovery can not only cease, it can actually lose ground.

It is another process which seems on the surface to be difficult to face, but in actuality, it is as much a benefit to the one admitting the wrong as it is to the person who was wronged. By promptly facing mistakes and taking responsibility for them, it prevents situations from festering into resentments and anger that can become real problems.

Step 10 helps to keep the spiritual house clean. All humans and are bound to make mistakes and errors. Owning up to those wrongs quickly settles the issue. Rather than weighing on the conscience or building up to produce greater consequence, the mistake is corrected promptly and the problem nipped in the bud.

Visitors to the bulletin board here at the Mining Co. Alcoholism site have shared some very practical ways they have applied this step to their lives, in our study of the 12 Traditions and 12 Steps continues:

More about Step 10

Taking Responsibility
"I learned that it made me feel good to admit to being human, and making a mistake, and being truly sorry for it."

In the Family
"Saying "I am sorry" is easy. Meaning it is a different story."

Staying Humble
"This step in my daily life has helped me to be more conscious of other people's feelings instead of just my own."

Daily Inventory
"At first I thought this was going to be a drag, until I realized how good it made me feel."

Ego Buster
"I still don't like doing it. The reason is simple: EGO."

Cleaning House
"The act of quickly trying to right the wrong keeps my mental house clean."

Radically Honest
"An amend makes ME work to put things back to the way they were before MY wrong."

Index of 12 Steps and Traditions Study