Working the Steps – Step 10

The 12 Steps are long. Long enough to take a moment to look back at your progress and reevaluate things you can improve on, go back and fix, add or remove from your life, etc. Step Ten is that moment.

Steps one through nine are about removing addiction from your life and beginning the process of making amends with the loved ones you’ll need in recovery. Step Ten begins the process of actually living a new life without addiction.

Step Ten

Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.”

What do we mean by Step Ten being the process of actually living a new life without addiction? Well, in steps one through nine we discover the damage and difficulties addiction has brought on our lives and we work on halting those negative aspects to start a fresh life of recovery.

In steps four through nine, specifically, we take a moral inventory of our life, identify the role we play in the destruction and either self-correct or make amends. Essentially, we look at our past in active alcohol and drug addiction and look to remove it completely.

Step Ten begins the process of living in the present. We have learned through completing steps four through nine to take a moral inventory and recognize where we have gone wrong in the past. In Step Ten we continue to take self-inventories, and if necessary, correct the wrongs we may still be doing. The difference is that Step Ten inventories deal with the present and we work on correcting things right away.

Working Step Ten

For most recovering addicts, Step Ten can seem like an unnatural process. Addiction often strips our ability to recognize our wrongdoings and to responsibly handle criticism, so working those aspects into our new life in recovery can be difficult at first. Below are a few questions and suggestions to help you work Step Ten:

• Do you have a time set aside for reflection each day? If not, schedule specific times so you can keep yourself accountable for this very important step. Having a schedule also helps keep your life organized so you can put the right amount of focus into each task.
• Are there any new behaviors you think will make your program more effective? How do you plan to implement these?
• What are the behaviors or attitudes that could trigger your addiction that you need to be vigilant against?
• How can you guard or prepare for your triggers?
• What are possible amends or remedies you should make when you discover a wrongdoing?

Most recovering addicts try to work Step Ten at the end of each day, looking back on the events that took place and assess how they handled them. It’s important to remember that Step Ten is not a step taken once and then forgotten; it is an ongoing process of reflection and an important tool throughout recovery.

For more information on working the 12 Steps to addiction recovery, please look back at our blog series. Our client-centered drug rehab programs also work the 12 Step process with you or your loved one to take on the journey through recovery. For more information, please don’t hesitate to call our trained addiction specialists.