Character a Tool of Achievement

The philosophy of character is that it is said to be built during times of adversity but also revealed. 

In this case, it makes sense to proactively design your character. That is the character you wish to exude and you consciously value. To start, our ethics are guide to our actions.  Every day we are living our personal values and the result is our character.

To improve our character, we need to look at character traits that will give us the vision that we seek.  We must first have a clear vision of where we want to go and what character traits we would need to adopt to go where we want to go. 

The seven areas of life are: family, relationships, professional, prosperity and wealth, travel and fun, fitness and health, and spiritual/religious.  

Pick an area of your life that you would like to improve. 

Now answer the question: What will my _______ life look like in one year from now when everything works out ideally? -Notice, it’s not what you think you can achieve, what’s reasonable, or what you think you can get away with.  For this exercise, you need to release all limitations and go with ideally.  If you could have anything in this one area of life, what would it be in one year from now? 

After you write down that sentence or paragraph about what your vision looks like, you need to completely realize that you cannot fail, there are no rules. Be as detailed as possible, and get really excited about your vision. 

Next, ask yourself what traits you would have to adopt to get from where you are today to where you want to be in your vision. For example: if you want a six pack, but you don’t work out and you drink a six pack of beer every night, then you would have to become someone who goes to the gym and doesn’t drink a six pack of beer every night.  How would that person handle social events (the future you with a six pack of abs)? Would they say, no thank you to the chips and chicken wings and ask for a salad instead? Would they ask for water with lemon, because they know everything, they put in their mouth shows up on their body? Start to get really detailed about how your future self would show up in everyday life. 

List those traits. They could be things like confident, self-assured, disciplined, consistent, persistent, fun-loving, positive, optimistic, etc… 

Now write down: The following traits, I will adopt to achieve my vision and then re-write those traits. 

Examples could include: 

Focus

Passion

Energetic

Fun loving

Doer

Consistency

Persistency

Confidence

Write down as many traits as you can think of that apply to your situation and really feel each one to make it real.  Feel the trait as if you are already the person who says no to the chips and chicken wings and get the feeling for it, before you must be in that situation. 

Remember, you are never beholden to your character. You can change it at any point. The only thing you need is the willingness to change, so don’t be afraid to re-invent yourself.  Get a clear vision and you will know the characteristics you must adopt to get to point B. 

Your character must parallel your actions steps, when your character is out of sync with your action steps then this disparity causes destruction. It can also be said that if your character does not match your values then you are of bad character.

List your traits, write them down, and keep them in the three places you visit every day. Your bathroom mirror, your office and perhaps your care. 

Write down the date that you do this exercise so you can see how far you’ve come in one year’s time. 

Best luck for the new you! 

Coach Lee