Self serenely to self-discipline.suppose that financial insecurity constantly arouses these mistakes and fed my gnawing anxieties. and if the actions of others are part of the cause, what can i do about that? if i am unable to change the present state of affairs, am i willing to take the measures necessary to shape my life to conditions as they are? questions like these, more of which will come to mind easily in each individual case, will help turn up the root causes.but it is from our twisted relations with family, friends, and society at large that many of us have suffered the most. we have been especially stupid and stubborn about them. the primary fact that we fail to recognize is our total inability to form a true partnership with another human being. our egomania digs two disastrous pitfalls. either we insist upon dominating the people we know, or we depend upon them far too much. if we lean too heav-ily on people, they will sooner or later fail us, for they are human, too, and cannot possibly meet our incessant demands. in this way our insecurity grows and festers. when we habitually try to manipulate others to our own willful desires, they revolt, and resist us heavily. then we develop hurt feelings, a sense of persecution, and a desire to retaliate. as we redouble our efforts at control, and continue to fail, our suffering becomes acute and constant. we have not once sought to be one in a family, to be a friend among friends, to be a worker among workers, to be a useful member of society. always we tried to struggle to the top of the heap, or to hide under-neath it. this self-centered behavior blocked a partner-ship relation with any one of those about us. of true brotherhood we had small comprehension.creation gave us instincts for a purpose. without them we wouldnt be complete human beings. if men and women didnt exert themselves to be secure in their per-sons, made no effort to harvest food or construct shelter, there wouldnt be any survival. if they didnt reproduce, the earth wouldnt be populated. if there were no social instinct, if man cared nothing for the society of one an-other, there would be no society, so these desires for the sex relation, for material and emotional security, and for companionship are perfectly necessary and right, and surely god-given.yet these instincts, so necessary for our existence, often far exceed their proper functions. powerfully, blindly, many times subtly, they drive us, dominate us, and insist upon ruling our lives. our desires for sex, for material and emotional security, and for an important place in society often tyrannize us. when thus out of joint, mans natural desires cause him great trouble, practically all the trouble there is. no human being, however good, is exempt from these troubles. nearly every serious emotional problem can be seen as a case of misdirected instinct. when that happens, our great natural assets, the instincts, have turned into physical and mental liabilities.step four is our vigorous and painstaking effort to dis-cover what these liabilities in each of us have been and are. we want to find exactly how, when, and where our natural desires have warped us. we wish to look squarely at the unhappiness this has caused others and ourselves. by discovering what our emotional deformities are we can move toward their correction. without a willing and persistent effort to do this, there can be little sobriety or contentment for us. without a searching and fearless moral inventory, most of us have found that the faith, which really works in daily living, is still out of reach.