Tools & Tips To Improve Yourself
4 Tips for Building Good Character
Good character is defined by your integrity, honesty, and accountability. When you have a good character, you can identify your values and principles, while living them out in real-time. Your character frequently also describes your personality because your traits are intertwined in many ways.
Terms that often describe someone’s character are:
• Patient
• Determined
• Fair
• Optimistic
• Kind
• Honest
• Empathetic
• Helpful
The inverse of the words above can also be character traits as character can be either good or bad. If you want to build on the positive character traits, it’s important to know who you are, how the actions you take impact the world, the right way to make decisions, and that you are accountable for your actions.
Know Your Principles and Values
When you know what you stand for in the world, everything else from them on is so much easier, including having and showing your excellent character. Take the time to prioritize what matters to you in your personal life, career, community, and in the world. If you don’t know where you stand on different topics or what qualities you value most and why, it will be more difficult for you to be and appear authentic.
Make Well-Informed Choices
When you have a goal, ensure that the goal aligns with your principles, values, perspectives, ethics, and character. When all of these things align and convey the same messages or impressions, your decision-making process will be simplified, and you will be able to make your final choices in less time. This leads to greater productivity and has additional positive effects in other areas of your life.
If you have made poor or contradictory choices in your life, a lack of understanding and self-knowledge about what you value, is probably the cause. The more you know about yourself and your preferences, as well as your tendencies and motivations, the more likely you are to make the best choices for each situation. When you know these things, all your decisions become much faster and simpler to make.
Consider the Consequences of Your Actions
Before you jump in to take action, think about the impact that the action will have on you, your family, and others in the community. Also consider how the action will affect or change the different areas of your life. When you consider the probable consequences, it becomes clearer what actions and choices are best for you. If something you do has a negative impact, you can backtrack and choose a more favorable path.
Be Reliable and Accountable
Are you the type of person who needs outside accountability or are you effectively accountable on you own? For some people setting up reminders, filling in their schedule, and being mindful by tracking progress is enough accountability. If you struggle with taking action in a timely manner, you may want to get support from others, either a coach, counselor, co-worker, friend, or family member, etc.
The main thing you need to know about building good character is what defines good character. It essentially means that you stand for something and demonstrate that by the choices and actions you take in your life. The more consistently you make good decisions, the easier it is to continue on that path to success.
