Friday, August 05, 2005

Character Defects

Here's 2 columns of some of my character defects. This is the short list. In conjunction with Steps 6 & 7 of Alcoholics Anonymous, I ask God (as I understand Him) to remove these from me so that I may better do His will.

alibis and excuses .......................................... anger
arrogance ........................................................ bad attitude
blaming others ............................................... cheating
controlling ....................................................... being critical
defiant .............................................................. dishonesty
envy ................................................................. fearful
gluttony ........................................................... grandiosity
greed ................................................................ hateful
hypocritical ..................................................... impatient
inconsiderate .................................................. insensitive
intolerant ........................................................ irresponsible
jealous ............................................................. judgemental
know it all ....................................................... lazy
lust ................................................................... lying
manipulative .................................................. need to be right
negative thinking ........................................... perfectionism
pettiness ......................................................... pride
physically abusive ......................................... procrastination
prone to gossip ............................................... punishing
pushy ............................................................... rationalization
regretful .......................................................... rude
self-deception ................................................. self-righteous
self-pitying ...................................................... selfish
sloth .................................................................. stealing
stubborn .......................................................... suspicious
talk too much .................................................. tardy
thoughtless ...................................................... uncooperative
unrealistic ......................................................... unteachable
unwilling ............................................................ vanity
verbally abusive .............................................. withdrawn

Damn!

33 comments:

JJ said...

Love you dAAve

Trudging said...

Wow that takes b**ls to list your defects on the internet.

Recovery Road London said...

An interesting list, Dave. But help me out here; how do you arrive at

"physically abusive ......................................... procrastination"

???????

GodlessMom said...

Boy can I relate to some of those faults!

cantellya said...

If only the rest of us could be as honest with ourselves...

dAAve said...

Roots (kenny) -- it's actually two (2) columns; one trait does not lead to the next one as they are in alphabetical order

Jim -- Wow! You guessed it right! Guess what color I painted it. LOL

Anonymous said...

Looks to me like you're an average drunk. What were your character assets? QN

Phil said...

You forgot "obsessive." ;)

I was stalled on one exercise for Step Four (anyone else ever have that problem???), a Step Six-ish catalogue of character and moral shortcomings. Once I started writing down what defects I was displaying in the exercise itself (procrastination... avoiding unpleasant things... fearfulness... etc.) I filled three pages in no time. And at least a page was hyphenated words starting with "self." :)

Recovery Road London said...

Doh! Sorry, Dave.

**sheepish**

marvin said...

marvin says, being critical should just be critical if you want perfect alphabetical order. Am I being critical or am I just critical.

Anonymous said...

Thank you - your courage has helped me

Anonymous said...

Hi my name is Leanne and Im an alcoholic

You have helped me with my 6th step so much. I was looking at 7 deadly sins and knew there was so much more character defects that I had, you have helped reveal quite a few too me.

Thank you for sharing and God bless.

Anonymous said...

I also googled defects of character and it brought me here. I jotted down a few that I coudln't quite find the right word for. Also I agree that it takes a lot of courage to list your character defects on the internet. Right on man! Keep It Simple!

Anonymous said...

I accept I have all these defects at some level. And so the character defects are the problem, right? The solution is the steps, right? The new behavioral traits I am seeking are Honesty, Openmindedness, Willingness, Acceptance, Humility. The solution will only work if these new traits map as solutions to those defects, otherwise I have a character defect, right? And the answer for character defect of Gluttony which I am powerless over isn't addressed well by any of these new character traits I have been told to seek. The only thing there for me is Powerlessness which can only be relieved by surrendering my self-will to God as I understand God. Every other defect may be addressed through behavioral change except how not to drink, THE objective.

GOOOOOD ol Rockytop... rockytop tennesseeeeee! said...

ditto...

Anonymous said...

hank you for your posting. My Sponsor told me to look up character defects online and write down mine. Your list helped tons.

Anonymous said...

I also googled character defects and it brought me here. There are no coincidences. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave, Bravo. Your honesty is commendable. Thanks for your sharing the defects that others may have a difficult time identifying in themselves. It really helps in a step such as this to be able to reference a source to get the process working. You did a great job. Sue

freewilly said...

have you ever inventoried warped sense of perfection?

Unknown said...

I am writing an article right now about character defects, shortcomings and inner demons. I appreciate this blog post. ~Peta
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CASA-12-Steps/

Anonymous said...

as a newcomer I am inspired to get this right

Wendy said...

How come I didn't see fear listed???

Unknown said...

A lot of this involved just being honest, humble and truthful with ourselves, without being harsh and judgmental towards others., though, analysis gives us new insights. Learn, learn, learn!

Anonymous said...

I agree w/Anonymous who talked about honesty, openmindedness and willingness as key. After I look at my long list, from AA experience I give the defects to God to remove these things. And have learned from the old-timers to work on the opposite of the defects, when I do this am a lot more successful; when I work on being punctual rather than late all the time, trustworthy, rather than cheating, practicing tolerence rather than being critical. You get the idea, God bless, and don't take the first drink and you can't get drunk!

Unknown said...

Thank you for the encouragement. I also believe that it is important for healing souls ~ recovering addicts ~ to get involved in the local community and take positive action to help others in practical ways that we can!

Unknown said...

You really did a good job with identifying all these defects. I have to be honest and say that I've had a tough time with my own 6th step. It was really easy to work on my 4th step but once I REALLY had to look at my own character it proved to be difficult. I think your list will help me to see these defects in myself.

Whoa I didn't know that talking too much was a defect. hmmm, something to ponder.

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say thanks, having a list of your defects is making it easier for me to realize mine.

Anonymous said...

If I had not had so many defects when I got into reovery I would have had no character at all...

The list will really help people, like me, who did not even know we had so many defects until we saw them for ourselves and then accepted them to heal together.

Will A.

You won't find a solution for a problem you can't see.

Anonymous said...

generic soft tab viagra cheap viagra canada viagra buy price iframe viagra facts viagra alternatives which is better cialis or viagra viagra suppliers how to buy viagra cheap herbal viagra what does viagra do buy viagra online uk buy viagra in england viagra free sites computer find women's viagra

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the help. Step six had been difficult for me to start but after I got over my procrastination I was going well... Then when I started listing my defects I could feel myself going into overwhelmed procrastination mode again. Your list helped me to keep my momentum going. Now I have do a description of my defects and how they show up in my life.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for my post .Where i can watch more info about?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting your list. It really helped me get on the right path to do my sixth step to my fullest.

Unknown said...

Here I am 3 yrs since the last reply. I also Google character defects. I worked my 5th step today. Thank you for this as I move forward to step 6 &7. :)