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I’ve been thinking about a lot about the topic of "character strength" during the past five years. I've noticed that when people talk about “character,” they usually have only a vague concept of what it means. To me, character is “the inner strength to do the hard things in life.” So it's a big part of who you are. Here is some of what I've concluded so far: Strong character encompasses more than being a good person. Many people associate character strength with doing the right thing. Traits related to this concept are honesty, integrity, fairness and compassion. This view is on target, but character strength also encompasses being an effective person and doing what needs to be done. This is what is meant by traits such as courage, composure, patience and persistence. Character development isn’t just for kids. Character development is an important part of child development, perhaps the most important part. But adults rarely consider that character development continues throughout one’s life. Character may be strengthened whenever someone is tested by adversity. The more a person exercises a trait, the more ingrained the behavior pattern becomes and the easier it becomes to do what's right, or to do the hard things that get the job done. In this way, an adult can grow stronger for future life challenges at any stage of life. Or an adult can become weaker, by reinforcing patterns of not doing the hard things. Character development is self-development. Character traits are behavior patterns. So they can be learned. But they can't be taught. They can be encouraged, but only you can make the choice to do the heavy lifting of your own character development. No one can make you do the hard things. Strong character is the number one success factor. In my opinion, character strength is more important than any other success factor. It’s more important than knowledge, skills, motivation, financial backing, empowerment or political support. This resource for success is free. No amount of money can buy it. Like building a stronger body, building a stronger self is something anyone on earth can do.
Article Source: http://www.articledestination.com
Dennis E. Coates is CEO of Performance Support Systems, author of MindFrames, a brain-based personality assessment system (www.initforlife.com) and co-founder of the Train-to-Ingrain alliance (www.train-to-ingrain.com, info@train-to-ingrain.com, 800-488-6463), which delivers a reinforcement-centered approach to learning and development that achieves permanent, measurable improvements in workplace behavior and positive impacts on business results.
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