Step Four: Getting Honest

This pamphlet provides guidelines for completing AA’s Step Four: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” The exercises included can help people recovering from addiction draw up an honest and effective personal inventory.

Simply put, Step Four is an assessment of all of your assets and liabilities. It’s a hard look at who you’ve been, who you are, and who you’d like to be in the future. It’s a personal housecleaning. The idea of a “moral inventory” means to honestly take stock of your personality traits, choices, and behaviors. Step Four asks you to be “searching and fearless.” This Step gives you the chance to face the lies you may have told to yourself and others, and to look thoroughly and honestly at all of who you are and how you behave. This pamphlet answers common questions about Step Four and outlines a step-by-step process for completing your inventory.