1/2/2024 0 Comments Personal inventory meaningIn doing so, you will increase your confidence and ability to realize your dreams. Once you find them and come to know them intimately, you then must practice speaking of them unashamedly with your family, friends, and colleagues. To claim your personal powers, you will first need to uncover them. You are the sum of your personal powers–your abilities to create. You are not what you do or the groups you belong to. Do not mistake these labels for the real you in fact, the energy spent defending them may only weaken your ability to reach your highest potential. Although they dictate certain behavior, you can always change the rules, the titles, and the protocols. Saying, “I’m a lawyer (a Democrat, a mother of four, a single parent, a Catholic, a baby boomer, an animal lover)” identifies a group you claim allegiance to. Who you are is not what you say when you introduce yourself at a party. Keeping our trains safely hidden leads us to disconnect with ourselves. My coaching clients tell me, “It doesn’t feel right to stand up and tell the world how wonderful I am. Why is it so difficult to declare our greatest strengths and characteristics? Most people are raised to be humble. Knowing “who I am at my best” in addition to “what I can do” frees the spirit. When I knew who I was, I could truly accomplish anything. I carried my “Personal Power List” with me when I returned to face the world. No matter what I did in life, I couldn’t really lose what was most valuable to me. She made me see how smart, strong-willed, creative, funny, generous and caring I was. It was my wise cellmate, Vicki, who helped me to see all I could BE. We take our list to another alcoholic or addict and our Higher Power to begin the next phase of our recovery.Whereas my father helped me realize all that I could do in life by helping me to set goals and achieve great things, I did not learn “who” I really was until I faced losing my will to live when sent to jail for a drug conviction at the age of twenty. If we have honestly and thoroughly examined our lives, we are now ready to move to the next step. An unwillingness to address these issues has the potential to lead us right back to the drink or drug. While this can be a difficult task, it is imperative if we wish to recover. At this point, we have to find the willingness to honestly and openly admit our wrongs in order to set these matters straight. Once we identify our role in each situation, we put pen to paper so that we can see our role. When we know this to be true, we have to identify the role we played by keeping the wrongs of others out of our minds and looking at how we may have been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking, or scared. I See my Wrongs, But How Does a Moral Inventory Help? We have to believe we cannot control the actions of others, only the actions of ourselves. This can be a difficult task for addicts. It is important we don’t focus on the wrongs we perceive to have been done to us, but rather understand those who may have wronged us could possibly be spiritually sick as well. When the list is complete, we take time to analyze it. As our inventory takes shape, we expand the list to what has been affected by the situation we are resentful towards. Often we find it is our self-esteem, finances, or relationships (personal or romantic in nature) that were affected. Then we take a look at what about these situations made us angry. It starts with a list as we write down all our resentments towards people, places, and things. We look at things that have taken place in our lives that we are harboring resentment over. While making our inventory, we take a long, hard look at ourselves. The drugs and alcohol are only symptoms – it is the roadblocks we have not faced that continue to keep us sick. We have to ensure we are looking at all of the things throughout the course of our lives that have acted as roadblocks. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.Īs we start the personal inventory of our lives, it is important to remember that we must be fearless in doing so. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous suggests we launch ourselves on a vigorous course of action, which is achieved by doing some personal housecleaning with a moral inventory. We have sincerely asked for guidance as our lives have become unmanageable under our direction, and now begin to look at all of the things in our lives holding us back. At this point, we have put our faith and control of our lives into the care of our Higher Power.
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