By Tony Harte | 36+ Years Sober | Addiction Recovery Specialist.
Key Takeaways: Stoicism & Step 6
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- Step 6 is about willingness, not action — the actual removal of character defects comes in Step 7.
- Character defects are not moral failures; they’re outdated coping strategies that no longer serve you.
- Willingness is something you can ask for, even when you don’t yet feel it naturally.
- Defects that feel like assets — resentment that drives ambition, pride that drives performance — are still defects. They just wear better disguises.
- The Stoic and AA traditions converge on the same point: it is not your circumstances but your attachment to them that causes suffering.
- You don’t have to work this Step alone. A sponsor and home group aren’t optional — they’re essential.
AA Step 6: What It Means to Be Entirely Ready to Remove Your Character Defects
Getting to AA Step 6 is no small thing. Steps 1 through 5 ask you to be more honest with yourself than most people manage in a lifetime — and you did it. Step 6 asks something different: not more honesty, but willingness. That shift is harder than it sounds, and it’s the whole point.
What Are Character Defects in Alcoholics Anonymous?
The term “defects of character” can sound harsh, but everyone has them. In AA, character defects refer to the negative traits, habits, and behaviors that develop over time and fuel destructive patterns — dishonesty, selfishness, resentment, fear, and pride being the most common.
For most of us, these defects go back a long way, some to childhood. They often began as survival mechanisms. We used them the same way we used alcohol: to cope, to protect ourselves, to feel in control. Understanding that context matters. These aren’t simply moral failings — they’re outdated strategies that have outlived their usefulness.
What Does “Being Entirely Ready” Actually Mean in Step 6?
The 6th Step reads: “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” This marks a significant pivot — from identifying what’s broken to being genuinely prepared to let it go.
Willingness is the cornerstone of this Step. It’s not about removing the defects yet — that comes in Step 7. It’s about arriving at an honest readiness to change.
Bill W. wrote in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions: “This is the Step that separates the men from the boys.” That’s not about machismo. It’s about the difference between knowing you have a problem and being willing to do something about it. Self-awareness without willingness is just an interesting story you tell about yourself.
The Stoics understood this dynamic. Epictetus wrote in the Enchiridion: “It is not the things themselves that disturb men, but their judgments about these things.” The character defects aren’t the core problem — our attachment to them is. Willingness, in Stoic terms, is agreeing to update your judgment about what actually serves you.
Bill W. also acknowledged how difficult this readiness can be: “If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing.” Willingness isn’t always something you arrive at fully formed. Sometimes you have to ask for it first.
How to Work AA Step 6: Five Concrete Actions
Working the 6th Step involves a handful of specific actions:
Review your Step 4 inventory. Go back to your moral inventory and your Step 5 admissions. Identify the specific defects that keep showing up. Write them down — there’s something clarifying about getting them out of your head and onto paper.
Consider the impact. Trace how each defect has affected your life and the people around you. This isn’t about generating guilt. It’s about strengthening motivation. The clearer you are about the damage, the more genuine your readiness becomes. These defects have driven behavior well beyond the drinking — verbally or physically harming others, misusing money meant to sustain a family, any pattern that caused unnecessary damage.
Pray or meditate. If your higher power is God, this is a time to ask for guidance and the willingness to let go. Whatever form your higher power takes, use whatever practice connects you to something larger than your own will.
Talk to your sponsor and home group. This Step benefits from outside perspective. The people who know your story can help you see blind spots and provide accountability that’s hard to manufacture on your own.
Be patient. Willingness doesn’t always arrive on schedule. It’s a process. Expecting it to happen overnight is a setup for unnecessary frustration. This is a journey of continuous growth — not a checklist item to cross off by Friday.
What Makes Step 6 Difficult — and How to Work Through It
Most people hit at least one of these walls:
Fear of losing your identity. Some defects have been part of you so long that letting them go feels like losing yourself. Consider this: you may resent a coworker, and that resentment drives you to outperform them. Promotions, recognition, and raises follow. But the underlying motivator is corrosive. You find yourself asking: “If I lose this resentment, where does my motivation go? Do I become mediocre?” That’s a real fear worth sitting with. The answer — which recovery tends to prove over time — is that healthier motivations exist and are more sustainable. But you won’t know that until you’re willing to find out.
Attachment to defects that feel like assets. Pride and control can look like strengths from the outside. Recognizing them as coping mechanisms is uncomfortable. It’s essential to see that while these traits may have served a purpose in the past, they are now barriers to continued sobriety.
Doubt about whether change is possible. This is where the community matters most. You don’t have to believe in your own transformation right now. You just have to be willing to let it happen. You don’t have to do this alone — that’s worth repeating.
How Stoic Philosophy Maps to AA Step 6
Step 6 asks recovering alcoholics to become "entirely ready" to have their character defects removed — a process that mirrors core Stoic principles around judgment, willingness, and the discipline of letting go. The table below maps each Step 6 concept to its Stoic parallel and the direct sobriety benefit it provides.
| Concept | Core Principle | Application | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Willingness | Voluntary Choice (Prohairesis) | Choosing to become ready to release defects, even before the feeling of readiness arrives. | Opens the door to Step 7 |
| Character Defects | Irrational Judgments (Phantasia) | Recognizing outdated coping behaviors — resentment, pride, fear — as attachments, not strengths. | Strips defects of false value |
| Higher Power | Acceptance of Limits (Dichotomy of Control) | Acknowledging that willpower alone cannot remove deep-rooted defects — and asking for help. | Breaks self-reliance trap |
| Patience in Process | Ongoing Virtue Practice | Treating readiness as a daily practice, not a one-time event — consistent with Marcus Aurelius's view of moral progress. | Sustains long-term growth |
| Fear of Change | Attachment to False Goods | Examining defects that masquerade as assets — resentment as motivation, pride as drive — and questioning their true cost. | Reduces resistance to Step 6 |
Conclusion: How a Higher Power Fits Into Step 6
The 6th Step is an act of faith — not because it requires religious belief, but because it requires trusting that something better will replace what you let go. Bill W. wrote: “We had to have God’s help. To be vital, faith must be accompanied by self-sacrifice and unselfish, constructive action.” Willingness alone isn’t enough. It must be coupled with faith and action.
The concept of a higher power in AA is deliberately open. It can be God, the group itself, a set of principles — whatever you understand as greater than your own will. What matters is that you stop relying exclusively on the same thinking that created the problem in the first place.
Step 6 Is the Bridge — Not the Destination
Once you’ve built genuine willingness, Step 7 is the natural next move — actively asking your higher power to remove the shortcomings you’ve identified. It can be helpful to study Step 7 while still working Step 6. Understanding what you’re preparing for makes the readiness more intentional and concrete.
Recovery is a continuous process. Marcus Aurelius, writing to himself in the Meditations, put it plainly: “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” Step 6 is where self-awareness becomes self-improvement. That transition — from knowing to doing — is what makes this Step pivotal.
Step 6 is not the finish line. It is, as Bill W. wrote, “only the beginning of a new journey, which must be taken in all humility and patience.” The willingness you build here is what carries you forward.
Are you ready to move on to Step 7 – Let’s Go! Take the Step Here
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between AA Step 6 and Step 7?
Step 6 is about becoming ready — building genuine willingness to have your character defects removed. Step 7 is the action that follows: humbly asking your higher power to actually remove them. You can’t skip Step 6 and go straight to Step 7 because willingness is what makes the request sincere rather than mechanical.
What are the character defects referred to in Step 6?
In AA, character defects — also called shortcomings — are the ingrained traits and behaviors that fuel destructive patterns: dishonesty, resentment, fear, selfishness, pride, and others. They often developed as coping mechanisms long before the drinking started. Step 6 doesn’t require you to eliminate them yet; it asks you to be ready to let them go.
What if I’m not sure I’m ready to give up my character defects?
That uncertainty is normal and acknowledged in the program. Bill W. wrote directly about it: “If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing.” You don’t need to arrive at Step 6 already willing — you can ask for the willingness itself. That’s a legitimate and common way to work the Step.
Do I need to believe in God to work Step 6?
No. AA’s concept of a higher power is intentionally open-ended. It can be God, the group, a set of principles, or anything you understand as greater than your individual will. The requirement isn’t a specific theology — it’s a genuine acknowledgment that your own willpower, used alone, hasn’t been enough.
How long should Step 6 take?
There’s no fixed timeline. For some people it flows naturally from Step 5. For others it takes longer, especially when certain defects feel like assets worth keeping. Working with a sponsor is the most reliable way to gauge whether you’ve genuinely arrived at readiness rather than just going through the motions.
