Step 6 · Tradition 6 · Concept VI
Willing to let go
Willingness to be rid of what holds me back, what distracts the group, and what keeps the Conference from trusting its trustees.
Step 6 · Recovery
Willingness
Becoming fully ready to let go of our defects
Read Step 6 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Tradition 6 · Unity
Solidarity
Staying clear of outside enterprises, endorsements and the money that follows
Read Tradition 6 at aa.org (opens in a new tab)Concept VI · Service
Initiative
Trustees take the lead on most world service matters
Read Concept VI at aa.org (opens in a new tab)The Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts for World Service are copyrighted by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Read them in full at aa.org.
The thread
Step Six is the willingness to be free of the defects we have come to depend on. Tradition Six asks the group to be just as willing to pass up money, property and prestige from outside ventures, however attractive, because they divert us from our purpose. Concept VI asks the Conference, which carries the principal responsibility for world services on the Fellowship’s behalf, to be willing to let the trustees exercise chief initiative in most world service matters rather than micromanaging them. All three involve releasing something we are tempted to hold onto so that the real work can go forward.
Where it shows up
A member working Step Six may notice that she is entirely ready to be rid of her temper but not her pride, and that the readiness has to grow one defect at a time. A home group faces Tradition Six when a well-meaning treatment center offers to print the group’s schedule with its own logo, or a member wants to rent space for the group under a business name; the group says thank you and no. At the area level, committees decline to co-sponsor events with outside organizations, however worthy, so that nobody can mistake A.A. for an ally of anything but A.A. The Conference lives Concept VI every time it gives the General Service Board a broad advisory action and then trusts the trustees, A.A.W.S. and the Grapevine board to carry it out without a delegate committee second-guessing each step. Willingness, at every level, means loosening a grip.