Who’s managing Your Personal Character Development?
The title of this article asks, “Who’s managing your personal character development?” and the best answer to this question should be that you are. But is that actually the case? Do you even care? You should. The fact is you matter. Not just to yourself but to the people you engage with each day, the community you live in, and when you really think about it, you matter to the entire world. No one else is “just like you” and you exist right now, in this exact moment in history, for a reason. The things you think, say, and do are a direct reflection of your character and the legacy of the life you’re living.
Maybe some additional “Who’s managing your personal character development” related questions you could ask yourself will reveal actionable answers. Questions like: Who, or what, has the greatest influence on your character development, and how did that come to be? What character traits can your parents, siblings, and grandparents be credited with? What role do the five people you spend the most time around (your personal peer group) play in who you really are? What do you feed your brain each day and how did you happen to select the sources of input?
The intention of all these questions is designed to create understanding for the potential “personal character” improvement they can lead to when thoughtfully considered. The thought processes that develop from careful consideration of the role personal character can play in our life is worth what I like to call “attentive management.” Attentive management has at its foundation our innate sense of “right and wrong” which was created early in our life. However, by the time we reach adulthood we all have developed extremely different foundations of right and wrong reflective of our upbringing and the input we received which was highly influenced by our family dynamics. What WE think is right may be thought of as wrong by others. Evidence? Consider categorizing the broad spectrum of bumper stickers that you encounter each day and see how YOU match up to the person in the vehicle ahead of you.
Who am I to judge others. That’s not my role nor purpose for being on this earth. Rather, I love to learn from what I observe. When I encounter a bumper sticker, verbiage, or behavior that my personal sense of right and wrong is challenged by, I immediately turn to curiosity as to how that individual’s sense of right and wrong was developed that lands them where they are today. What was their home environment like? Are they part of a close-knit family or estranged from family? Has some sort of religious faith ever been a part of their life? What are their current relationships and friendships defined by? What sort of work environment and industry are they placed within each day? What brings them joy, both immediate and long-lasting?
The nature of who I am provides me with an abundance of hope. That’s why I always follow my curiosity with hope for myself, with whomever I’m engaged with, with whomever I’m observing, and with the world in general. For every situation, there’s always hope. Why am I consistently so hopeful? Because I realized early on in life that hopelessness leads directly to the downward spiral of defeat, and defeat is a place nothing good can be created from. But hope can’t exist on its own.
Consistently embracing hope each day requires action, both mental and physical, which brings me right back to the attentive management of our personal character development. Earlier in this article I asked you some several personal questions designed to give you a sense of where your character traits currently are and how they came to be. It’s when you honestly answer those questions that you can being to understand how strongly the people you spend the most time with directly impact your character traits. Then you can answer the deeper questions related to the input you allow yourself to be given each day and how that continually develops your innate sense of right and wrong.
Maybe you’ve heard the saying “garbage in, garbage out” or heard that “a computer can only produce outcomes based on what it was fed” (input). It’s also a fact that “good produces good!” That’s why managing what you feed your brain each day directly impacts who you really are as defined by your personal character. It matters. You matter. Not just to yourself, but to all of us that share this earth with you. I know I said it earlier, but that’s how much I believe that it’s true. There are people (like me) that care about you and have an abundance of hope for the good things that come from positive character development.
While it may be hard for you to pause, reflect, consider, understand, and take action analyzing your current character traits, the reward for doing so can be enormous. You’ll discover how you arrived at your current status. If you’re already a member of our community that utilizes your character traits to make a positive difference…HOORAY! You’re bringing positive change to our culture and our world (thank you). If your current list of character traits doesn’t reflect the person defined by what you truly feel about yourself in your heart and the person you really want to be…GOOD NEWS – YOU have complete control over the rest of today and every one of the tomorrows in your life yet to arrive. Remember, worthwhile change may not be easy, but that’s what makes it so very worthwhile. So, get busy managing your personal character development and live the life you’ve always dreamed of. Hey…I Believe In YOU! GiddyUp!