The first part of step 10 is to continue to take personal inventory which is really important for self awareness and self regulation.  To maintain a principled way of life takes commitment to this step and the process of inventory.  Additionally you need to do the personal inventory to know when you were wrong.  This is the second part of the step to take responsibility when you are wrong by promptly admitting this.

This part of the step invites us into seeing the perspective of others.  A form of sitting at the other side of the fence.  It  invites us into being empathic which takes us out of ourselves and being stuck.  To be empathic builds your awareness of the emotions and feelings of others.  It can give an intellectual or conceptual grasping of the effect of another.  It is about moral development and emotional sophistication.  It is a prerequisite for the development of principled living which changes ones attitude and judgements and opens the mind.

It challenges our internal constructions and script process which stops us acting out emotionally.  Psychologist G Kelly developed construct theory which is about the internal systems developed about the world on beliefs, relationships and knowledge.  Some times these constructions have implications and major consequences because we tend to behave on them.  They are part of our script process and we can often feel powerless in their grip.

Empathy and seeing the perception of the other are great script challengers as they take us out of this cycle. In Psychotherapy often the work is about helping people to recognize the reality of “alternative constructions” “the consequences of script”.  To help explore the ones that are more conducive to their health and well-being.  This can be really powerful as people embark on this process of change which can be simultaneously destabilizing and liberating.

The same applies to the step 10 process as its about inviting you into a different perspective to the old frame of reference.  To the old way of looking at how you may impact others and not evaluate the effect.  To the old script which was once about self preservation but now parts can be counter-productive to ones development.    By even being invited into an inventory process which part of the action is about owning when wrong puts the position of this in a place where it is not all about self. The process of owning when you are wrong  crosses over the script which can be another form of self absorption if we get engulfed in the dynamics.

Human beings don’t mean to be so self absorbed.  Its something that happens due to unmet developmental needs and self preservation.   However what once worked as a child can end up as  dysfunctional strategies as an adult.  Humans spend their lives finding ways to keep safe. When they find these ways they create a script that works for them.  However, this often means recreating old patterns of behaviours, thinking, feeling and relationships that end up unsafe and counter-productive.

The invitation into the steps, self maintaining with inventory and using empathy for principled living can cross the very entrenched patterns that can keep someone stuck.  The step takes us out of the comfort zone and invites us into looking at how others may experience something that we did.  To even look at something that we have done wrong may be completely away from our script.  It can be really freeing from the script to look at our personal conduct and how this at times is “wrong”.  Once we see this we have a choice on what to do with this and if we want the principled changes that are required in recovery and a script free life.