The Daily Inventory: A Pathway to Peace

Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Principle 7 (CR): Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.

I have to admit I don’t do this like I should.  The daily inventory is a great tool to help you see your own patterns whether they be good and healthy patterns or sabotaging patterns bringing chaos to ourselves and to those around us.  If you need help with the daily inventory, there are many options available.  I happen to have a couple of daily inventory workbooks that have questions to jog my memory and help me to focus on what really mattered and what did not.  You can find these on sites like Barnes & Noble and Amazon.  I like these workbooks because they help me stay focused and help to pinpoint possible issues when I go back through my entries. 

The main purpose of the daily inventory or the periodic inventory is growth.  As we learn our patterns, we are able to get ourselves out of those patterns and eventually stop the patterns before they start to weave a trail of destruction in our lives.  The daily and periodic inventories are also a great way to help us keep our side of the street clean (and make sure we aren’t on other people’s streets too).  The bulk of the steps is learning to be a good person who stays out of unnecessary drama thereby limiting our addiction’s ability to rear its ugly head and try to take control.  The steps as a whole are the necessary instructions for life on earth and the lessons they impart make life much easier and allow for joy to invade our lives.

I, like many of you, tend to take the daily or periodic inventories when I am unhappy, pissed off, frustrated or stressed out.  And while this is good to do… I have to wonder if I would get to these points if I were doing the inventories on the regular like it is suggested in the literature.  I mean if the inventories are good at helping me pinpoint what it is that I need to let go of or change to get me out of my funks - could they not also prevent said funks if I did them like I am supposed to???  What are your thoughts?  Do you do the inventories like you are supposed to?

Challenge:  Since the ever hectic and sometimes highly emotional holidays are upon us… I am going to challenge myself to do the daily inventory from November through February.   I want to see if things at this time of year bother as much as they usually do or if I seem to be more level headed mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Want to join me?  Be sure and let me know if you do and feel free to share any insights!  You can leave comments here, email me or DM me on social media. :-)

PS: the daily inventory is also good for non-substance abuse readers who deal with depression, anxiety or fear to name a few… we all have patterns and choices that move us towards or away from recovery and happiness and the inventory can help!