THE STEPS · STEP FOUR
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
IN PLAIN WORDS
The step where we finally take stock.
The Book compares this step to a business inventory — "a fact-finding and a fact-facing process." A business that never counts its stock goes broke without knowing why. So do we.
Step Four isn't about shame, and it isn't a confession — that comes later, with another person. This is just the counting: the resentments we've been carrying, the fears underneath them, and the ways our conduct hurt people. Fearless doesn't mean unafraid.
Most of us were terrified. It means thorough — we didn't skip the pages that had our own handwriting on them.
HOW IT WORKS · BIG BOOK, P. 64
Where we get stuck
“I don't know where to start.”
Neither did we. That's why the Book gives us columns — and why we made you templates. One name at a time.
“Fearless? I'm terrified.”
Fearless means thorough, not unafraid. Every one of us wrote scared.
“This will take forever.”
It takes sittings, not a sitting. The Book's founders wrote theirs in pieces too. Print it, and pick it up as you can.
THE STEP FOUR TOOL
The Inventory
The Book's four columns, worked one resentment at a time — and seen whole. A real Fourth Step takes sittings, and your inventory leaves with you after every one.
🛡 Free · No account · You keep the file — we never hold a copy
THE STEP FOUR TOOL
The Fear Inventory
Step Four, Part Two. Name every fear, then work through where it comes from and what it costs you now — one sitting at a time.
🛡 Free · No account · You keep the file — we never hold a copy
THE STEP FOUR TOOL
The Sex Conduct Inventory
Step Four, Part Three. The same honesty as the rest of the inventory, applied to relationship and sexual conduct.
🛡 Free · No account · You keep the file — we never hold a copy
START WITH ONE RESENTMENT
Write one resentment — get a Step 4 reflection
Step 4 asks us to write. This is a small start: share one resentment — just a sentence or two — and receive a reflection grounded in Big Book principles. This is not a substitute for working with a sponsor.
When you tap Get reflection, what you wrote is sent to Anthropic’s AI, which writes the reply. We don’t keep a copy.
Part of our Recovery Tools — free tools for people working the program.
Something missing from this tool? Tell us →
THE INVENTORY TEMPLATES
Paper still works best.
Free, printable, and yours. The Book's own column method — with examples to get us thinking, never a complete list. Many of us keep our written inventory on paper for privacy; these are made for that.
Step Four Checklist
PDFThe whole step at a glance: what to write, in what order, and when you're done.
Download · 53 KB
Resentment Inventory
PDFThe four columns: who, what happened, what it affects, our part.
Download · 85 KB
Fear Inventory
PDFWhat we're afraid of, why we have the fear, and what the Book suggests instead.
Download · 86 KB
Conduct Inventory
PDFOptional — in the Book's own review of our relations
Where we were selfish, dishonest, or inconsiderate. Whom we hurt. What we should have done instead.
Download · 86 KB
What a sponsor would ask
“Who's been living rent-free in your head the longest? That's your first row.”
“Which resentment are you saving because it still feels justified?”
“What's the fear underneath that one?”
From the literature
Big Book · pp. 64–71
Big Book · pp. 64–65
Big Book · pp. 68–70
Step Five is waiting — your inventory will need a listener.
Continue to Step Five →