Step 6 Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character

"The negative patterns uncovered in our inventory represent a lifetime of ingrained beliefs, attitudes, and habits of behavior. Just becoming aware of them can be painful."Sex Addicts Anonymous pg 40
One of the deep questions of Step Six is "what is a character defect?" When I first read the words of this step, what were the first things that sprang to mind?

"Character defects are undesirable traits, attitudes, and beliefs that make our lives unmanageable, cause pain to others, and block our spiritual growth." Sex Addicts Anonymous pg 40
The Step Four inventory is a list of moral choices shown by the behavior I did. Those moral choices are not my character defects. My "character defects" are the reasons why I continued to make those choices even when I had the unwanted consequences.
What are some of the reasons that I continued to take those choices?



What are the attitudes and beliefs that these moral choices show that I have?

"Step Six builds on the recognition that our malady has roots deeper than just our acting out behavior." Sex Addicts Anonymous pg 40
Often we find that after doing Step Five, parts of our lives have changed. We may not have the same anger or shame that once drove our behaviors. However, there are parts that do not change or now come to dominate our lives. What changes to my actions and motivations have I or others around me noticed?

"We can ask our sponsor and friends in recovery for help in identifying our character defects." Sex Addicts Anonymous pg 41
One of the ways to identify our character defects is to notice what our "hot buttons" are that our loved ones push. Each such "button" can help identify a character defect that we have avoided examining. What "hot buttons" do I still have?



What does the existence of those buttons tell me about my character?