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[00:00:01.060 – 00:00:01.540] Okay. [00:00:01.540 – 00:00:06.840] Now we're gonna make one other suggestion before we leave the inventory. [00:00:06.840 – 00:00:12.180] Uh, the book says we have, uh, we have the, the list for our amends. [00:00:12.180 – 00:00:13.760] We made it and we took step four. [00:00:13.760 – 00:00:17.939] And we've looked at people we've hurt on a resentment sheet. [00:00:17.939 – 00:00:20.760] We looked at them on the fear sheet. [00:00:20.760 – 00:00:23.420] We looked them at them on the sex sheet.

[00:00:23.420 – 00:00:30.280] But there's other people we've hurt in other ways, too, that perhaps haven't popped up on any of these sheets. [00:00:30.280 – 00:00:36.360] Maybe somebody, we stole money from them, or maybe we– somebody we hurt physically. [00:00:36.360 – 00:00:37.720] Many ways we hurt people. [00:00:37.720 – 00:00:47.880] And any of those names that haven't come up on at least one of these three sheets, we suggest we take this fourth sheet, a [00:00:47.880 – 00:00:54.500] review of harms other than sexual, and do exactly the same thing with it that we have done with the other sheets. [00:00:54.500 – 00:00:56.900] Column one: who did I hurt? [00:00:56.900 – 00:01:00.280] Column two: what did I do?

[00:01:00.280 – 00:01:04.280] Column three: what part of self is affected? [00:01:04.280 – 00:01:08.520] Column four: what feelings did I create in others? [00:01:08.520 – 00:01:09.899] What should I have done instead? [00:01:09.899 – 00:01:15.900] Column five: which character defect is involved? [00:01:15.900 – 00:01:25.020] And if we'll do that, then we've got everything we need here for four, five, six, and seven, eight, and nine. [00:01:25.020 – 00:01:35.260] And when we've done this sheet, when we have completed our inventory, we've got everything we need now for four, five, six, seven, [00:01:35.260 – 00:01:36.260] eight, and nine.

[00:01:36.260 – 00:01:39.760] And now then we're ready to get on with our business. [00:01:39.760 – 00:01:42.420] Very, very simple procedure. [00:01:42.420 – 00:01:43.660] Now let me ask you something. [00:01:43.660 – 00:01:47.400] Did we see anything here to be afraid of? [00:01:47.400 – 00:01:52.740] Did we see anything that was so complicated we couldn't do it? [00:01:52.740 – 00:01:57.460] Did we make a list of dirty, filthy, nasty items? [00:01:57.460 – 00:02:02.820] Did we get any positive results from this?

[00:02:02.820 – 00:02:03.720] Yes. [00:02:03.720 – 00:02:07.480] Is there any reason why we shouldn't go ahead and do step four? [00:02:07.480 – 00:02:10.940] We don't need to procrastinate any longer, we do we? [00:02:10.940 – 00:02:15.440] It is simple enough that we can get with it, get on with the program. [00:02:15.440 – 00:02:21.100] A little bit of study and a little bit of help with your sponsor and a couple of evenings, you can have it done just that quick. [00:02:21.100 – 00:02:26.200] Now the book says if we've been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. [00:02:26.200 – 00:02:29.820] We have listed and analyzed our resentments.

[00:02:29.820 – 00:02:34.060] Now some people look at the word analyzed as a bad word. [00:02:34.060 – 00:02:38.280] All this is, is another word that means truth. [00:02:38.280 – 00:02:46.480] We have taken a truthful, a moral, truthful, honest, analytical inventory. [00:02:46.480 – 00:02:50.120] To analyze something simply means to get down to the truth of it. [00:02:50.120 – 00:02:54.120] Now he didn't say it, but we've listed and analyzed our fears. [00:02:54.120 – 00:02:58.140] We've listed and analyzed our sexual harms. [00:02:58.140 – 00:03:02.400] We've listed and analyzed harms other than sexual.

[00:03:02.400 – 00:03:06.640] We've begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. [00:03:06.640 – 00:03:10.080] We have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. [00:03:10.080 – 00:03:12.180] Now here's some results. [00:03:12.180 – 00:03:19.940] We have begun to learn tolerance, patience, and goodwill toward all men, even our enemies, for we look on them as sick people. [00:03:19.940 – 00:03:23.180] My God, what a change in personality already. [00:03:23.180 – 00:03:26.860] This is a real change taking place here in step four. [00:03:26.860 – 00:03:29.800] We don't have to wait till step twel- twelve to get something.

[00:03:29.800 – 00:03:37.200] We have listed the people we've hurt by our conduct and are willing to straighten out the past if we can. [00:03:37.200 – 00:03:42.560] In this book, you read again and again that faith did for us what we could not do for ourselves. [00:03:42.560 – 00:03:50.180] We hope you are convinced now that God can remove whatever self-will has blocked you off from Him. [00:03:50.180 – 00:03:53.360] If you've already made a decision- To step three … [00:03:53.360 – 00:03:57.370] and an inventory of your grosser handicaps, you have made a good beginning. [00:03:57.370 – 00:04:04.500] That being so, you have swallowed and digested some big chunks of truth about yourself. [00:04:04.500 – 00:04:09.000] So now what are, what are some of the grosser handicaps which we've looked at?

[00:04:09.000 – 00:04:13.360] Resentment, fear, guilt, and remorse. [00:04:13.360 – 00:04:17.560] What are some of the basic character defects that we've looked at in the, in the basic cause? [00:04:17.560 – 00:04:23.440] Selfish, dishonest, self-seeking, frightened, and inconsiderate. [00:04:23.440 – 00:04:28.780] We have really looked at those things very carefully, haven't we? [00:04:28.780 – 00:04:32.580] Now the book recognizes it will never be perfect. [00:04:32.580 – 00:04:36.060] It said these are our grosser handicaps. [00:04:36.060 – 00:04:39.930] I think one of the great mistakes being made in A.A.

[00:04:39.930 – 00:04:44.400] today is everybody sitting around and waiting till they get well so they can do step four perfect. [00:04:44.400 – 00:04:46.599] You can't do that. [00:04:46.599 – 00:04:49.360] Let's get rid of these grosser things. [00:04:49.360 – 00:04:54.980] We've got another step later on that we're going to use this process for the rest of our life. [00:04:54.980 – 00:05:00.000] We'll be inventorying forever, and it'll get better and better. [00:05:00.000 – 00:05:03.540] But these are the major things that kill us. [00:05:03.540 – 00:05:05.200] We got them behind us.

[00:05:05.200 – 00:05:06.880] Now we can get on with our business. [00:05:06.880 – 00:05:11.680] You know, I think, I think this is all the inventory I need anyhow. [00:05:11.680 – 00:05:21.900] As I look back in my lifetime, I can't spot an emotional problem I've ever had that didn't revolve around one of three things: madder [00:05:21.900 – 00:05:30.880] than hell at somebody, scared to death about something, or I'd done something I shouldn't have done and the guilt and remorse was eating me up. [00:05:30.880 – 00:05:40.940] As I project my mind in the future, I don't see anything that's going to bother me that's not going to revolve around the same three things: madder than hell, scared to death, [00:05:40.940 – 00:05:42.900] or filled with guilt and remorse. [00:05:42.900 – 00:05:49.780] I think this is a perfect inventory for people like us, and we will continue to work on it the rest of our lives anyhow.

[00:05:49.780 – 00:05:58.120] Now, I don't know whether you all have noticed or not, but nearly all the information in the big book on sex is on page sixty-nine. [00:05:58.120 – 00:06:04.740] I, I don't know that that has any significance whatsoever. [00:06:04.740 – 00:06:10.040] That just happens to be where nearly all the sex information is, is on page sixty-nine. [00:06:10.040 – 00:06:15.120] You know, we heard a story about a young lady who been in A.A. [00:06:15.120 – 00:06:25.360] about ninety days, and she went to her sponsor and she said, "Sponsor, I've got a problem." Her sponsor said, "What is it?" She said, "Well, it's this sex thing." She said, "Sober, I don't know what to do. [00:06:25.360 – 00:06:36.270] Anything I've ever done in a sexual area, tried to attract a member of the opposite sex or anything else, it's always been while drinking, and sober I just don't know how to function." Her [00:06:36.270 – 00:06:38.460] sponsor said, "Well, go home and get out your big book.

[00:06:38.460 – 00:06:41.120] Read page sixty-nine. [00:06:41.120 – 00:06:50.880] It will have the answer to any problems you might have." So the young lady goes home, gets her book out, and proceeds to read, but she got confused on page numbers. [00:06:50.880 – 00:06:55.780] Instead of page sixty-nine, she read page ninety-six. [00:06:55.780 – 00:06:59.960] Just for the hell of it, why don't you go to ninety-six and see what she read? [00:06:59.960 – 00:07:20.660] I [00:07:20.660 – 00:07:23.320] think that's one of the most appropriate things I've ever read. [00:07:23.320 – 00:07:25.600] It just goes on and on and on.