Step Six Work Guide: Becoming Entirely Ready for Change

Identifying Your Character Defects

Review your Fourth Step inventory and make a list of the character defects that appeared most consistently. Common character defects include: dishonesty, selfishness, self-pity, resentment, fear, people-pleasing, perfectionism, grandiosity, impatience, intolerance, and procrastination. Your list will be personal to you.

Exercise 1: The Defect Inventory

For each character defect on your list, write:

• How does this defect show up in my life?
• What purpose has it served? How has it protected me?
• What harm has it caused — to myself and to others?
• Am I willing to have this defect removed?

Exercise 2: The Attachment Examination

For the defects you are most resistant to releasing, write honestly about your attachment to them. What would you lose if this defect were removed? What are you afraid of? What would your life look like without it?

Exercise 3: The Willingness Prayer

For any defect you are not yet willing to release, write a prayer or intention asking for the willingness to become willing. This might be as simple as: "I am not yet willing to let go of [defect]. I ask for the willingness to become willing."

Questions for Discussion with Your Sponsor

• Which of my character defects am I most attached to, and why?
• What would "entirely ready" look like for me?
• What am I afraid of losing if my defects are removed?
• How have my defects served me in the past?

Exercise 4: The Defect-to-Virtue Map

For each character defect on your list, identify the underlying quality that, in its healthy expression, is a genuine virtue. For example:

• Dishonesty → the underlying quality is self-protection; the virtue is appropriate boundaries and honest communication
• People-pleasing → the underlying quality is care for others; the virtue is genuine kindness and consideration
• Perfectionism → the underlying quality is high standards; the virtue is conscientiousness and excellence
• Anger → the underlying quality is passion and the capacity for righteous indignation; the virtue is appropriate assertiveness

This exercise helps you see that Step Six is not asking you to become a person without strong qualities — it is asking you to express those qualities in healthier, less harmful ways.

Exercise 5: The Readiness Scale

For each character defect on your list, rate your readiness to have it removed on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is "not at all ready" and 10 is "completely ready." For any defect rated below 7, write about what is holding you back. What would need to change for you to become more ready? What would it take to move from a 5 to a 7?

Exercise 6: The Willingness Prayer

For any defect you are not yet willing to release, write a prayer or intention asking for the willingness to become willing. This might be as simple as: "I am not yet willing to let go of [defect]. I ask for the willingness to become willing." This recursive move — using the program's spiritual resources to address the very resistance that is blocking progress — is one of the most powerful tools in the Steps.

Understanding "Entirely Ready"

The word "entirely" in Step Six is one of the most challenging words in the entire program. It sets a high standard — not partial readiness, not readiness for some defects but not others, but complete readiness for all of them. Most people find that they cannot honestly claim to be entirely ready when they first work Step Six.

The program's response to this honest acknowledgment is not to demand that the person force themselves to claim readiness they do not feel. It is to invite them to work toward readiness — through prayer, through reflection, through conversation with their sponsor, and through the ongoing practice of the Steps. "Entirely ready" is a direction, not a destination. The person who is genuinely moving toward readiness is working Step Six, even if they have not yet arrived.

Signs That You Have Genuinely Worked Step Six

You have genuinely worked Step Six when:

• You have identified all of your primary character defects
• You have examined your attachment to each defect honestly
• You have developed genuine willingness to have at least some of your defects removed
• For defects you are not yet willing to release, you have asked for the willingness to become willing
• You are ready to make the humble request of Step Seven