Step Four: The Other Man's Inventory

Don't take other people's inventory!" chides an AA sponsor to an AA sponsee, sometimes gently, sometimes fiercely. As champions at figuring out the faults of others, we alcoholics in recovery often have to be reminded to look at our side of the equation. "The inventory was ours, not the other man's," says the Big Book on page 67. On the other hand, it is a time-honored axiom that we often see the faults in others that we ourselves have, so perhaps when we take someone else's inventory, we are really taking our own. I decided to test out this proposition, with remarkably good results.