"The first thing apparent was that this world and its people were often quite wrong." ('Alcoholics Anonymous', How It Works)
This is what the Book tells us when we consider what we have written in the first three columns of the resentment inventory. It is obviously a relief to be told that our accusations are correct. The world is wrong! People are wrong! And not just a little bit wrong. Quite wrong. That's quite a statement! Enjoy this one. Knock yourself out. But don't get too comfortable. This is where it kicks back:
I am included in the category of 'the world' and 'its people'. That means I am often quite wrong—mistaken, and acting on that basis.
If I can be mistaken at all, then the faculty of discerning when and where I am mistaken could itself be the very part of my mind that is mistaken.
"… they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false." (Doctor's Opinion)
If I cannot trust the faculty of discernment—for which there is ample evidence, as I almost never instinctively believe I am wrong, yet the Book suggests I am often quite wrong—then I must mistrust my mind as the source of my decision-making. I have to stick to principle, instead. Here are some principles:
Whenever I am disturbed, I am mistaken.
Whenever I am resentful (self-pitying, disappointed, etc.), I am mistaken.
Whenever I am afraid, I am mistaken.
Whenever I feel 'low self-worth', I am mistaken.
Whenever I draw the conclusion on the basis of guilt that there is something wrong with me, I am mistaken.
Conversely:
When I am at peace, I am not mistaken.
When I am accepting, I am not mistaken.
When I am unafraid, I am not mistaken.
When I recognise I am a perfect child of God, I am not mistaken.
When I recognise that everything 'wrong' I have ever done has derived from mistakenness not badness, I am not mistaken.