"After several years of recovery and doing vigorous work in completing Steps One to Nine, I felt I had arrived, that my work was done," says one long-time practitioner of the Twelve Steps. "I stopped talking regularly to a sponsor. I stopped going to as many meetings. I started 'going it alone' in the fellowship. I was shocked when after three years of recovery, I used one day. That led to two decades of repeated relapses."

This woman's desperation led her to a sponsor who required her to reread the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. While studying the suggestions for Step Ten, she recalls, "I realized something that I had been missing: daily work."

The Big Book's directions for daily work on this Step (page 84) include the following passage:

Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help.

Long-time members of Twelve Step groups can read right past these familiar words. Yet within these simple declarative sentences are instructions for a lifetime of spiritual growth. Each word is consciously chosen, written with the precision of a scientific abstract and leaving nothing to accident.

Step Ten in context
Step Ten moves us forward in recovery by grounding us in the recovery work that we've already done. Continuing to "watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear" takes us back to Step Four. The suggestion to "discuss them with someone immediately" returns us to Step Five. Asking God to remove these character defects returns us to Steps Six and Seven. And making amends is the subject of Steps Eight and Nine.

[Read Hazelden article]