Doing a Personal Development Inventory

One of the things that I learned about from AA was doing a personal inventory. It’s part of steps 4 and 10:

Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

This idea isn’t unique to recovering alcoholics. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living, and many traditions, both religious and secular, tout the benefits of self-examination.

The question is why? Why is the unexamined life not worth living? Why should we spend so much time watching our thoughts, feelings, and actions?

Because we can’t change things if we aren’t conscious of them.

But the point isn’t doing an inventory for the sake of doing an inventory. We could sit around all day and say “I’m good at that” and “I’m need to improve there”, but if we don’t take action on these things, we’ve pretty much wasted our time.

Imagine a store that does their yearly inventory, down to the last insignificant widget, getting a perfect overview of the good and the bad.

“Great, inventory’s done!” Then the papers are filed away until the next year… and all of the broken widgets are still strewn across the shelves, and the older models are not replaced with newer ones.

Or how about when you get ready to leave the house in the morning. You check your pockets or purse to make sure everything is there: Cell Phone, Wallet, Lunch, Car Keys… hey, where are my car keys?

Do you just sit there and lament the fact that you can’t find your car keys?

No. You go and find your keys. Because you can’t drive your car without them.

How would this apply to a personal development inventory?

Let’s see… enthusiasm, gratitude, courage, proactivity… hey, where’s my proactivity?

Let’s go get it!

Of course, it isn’t as easy just to go and get proactivity. It’s not a thing like the car keys. It’s an attitude followed by action.

So how do we get more of what we want?

By focusing on it. By keeping it in our sights.

Not by focusing on the lack of it.

So maybe that day, you just keep in your mind that you are going to be proactive. You are going to look for opportunities to take action, to grab the ball, to do things when they are presented to you.

And at the end of the day, you look at it.

Shoot, I didn’t do it here… or here… or here.

You make a promise to yourself that you will do it tomorrow.

You get up the next day.

You focus on proactivity.

At the end of the day… “Man… I didn’t do it here… or here… or here…”

You make a promise to yourself that you will do it tomorrow.

You get up the next day.

You focus on proactivity.

That night: “Darn, I didn’t do it here… or here… but wait… I did it there!”

Now that’s a feeling that’s better than anything.

And that’s the way this stuff works usually works.

Small, incremental improvements over time. A little bit better today than you were yesterday.

Quantum, huge jumps do happen and are possible… but they are also rare.

A little at a time, a moment at a time, is a tried and true way to create your better life.

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One note of caution – do not use your inventories to beat up on yourself. That’s focusing on what you don’t want. Instead, just acknowledge your slip up and turn towards what you do want.

It doesn’t matter what you did even 5 minutes ago… it matters what you are doing right now. What you did 5 minutes ago can only be used as an indicator of where you were… don’t let it be a template for what you are now.

Similar Posts:

• Fantastic Day so far… How?
• Link Love Gratitude #3
• Keep Moving!
• Three Steps of Personal Development
• Twelve Steps for Personal Development Addicts

Tagged as: aa, acceptance, action, change, focus, inventory, Personal Development