Step 4: Taking Inventory
Step 4 — Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Courage. I made a fearless, searching written inventory of myself.
A business that never counts its stock goes broke. Step four is the counting: resentments, fears, and relationship harms, written down in columns so patterns can't hide. The method here walks you through it one list at a time — who, what happened, how it hit you, and finally the hardest column: your part. Thoroughness beats speed. Perfection is not required; honesty is.
What to read alongside Step 4
📚 Companion reading: Big Book chapter 5, the inventory instructions on pages 64–71.
The actual how-to for the inventory you're about to write.
What working Step 4 looks like
These are the reflection questions 1more24 asks you at this step. The answers underneath are written examples — one person's, invented for this page.
Before you start: what scares you about writing this? Naming the fear shrinks it.
Invented, not anyone's real writing — and it couldn't be. Every member's journal is encrypted with their own password, so this application cannot read a single word of it.
Working Step 4, not just reading it
1more24 gives this step a private journal, reflection questions written for it, and a companion who knows where you are in the work. Everything you write is encrypted with your own password — nobody else can read it, not even us. Free and open to all.