Character and Integrity

While cleaning my desk recently, I happened across a favorite essay, Building Character for a Better Life, tattered from travel and revered for years.  It was a soothing aid in days of perplexity; sprinkled with truisms that helped temper the reflection I saw in the mirror each day.

Am I a good and moral person?  Did I return to the store and pay for an item that was not charged me?  Did I have an opportunity to help someone today without personal gain?  Did I lie to benefit myself?  Did I send a thank you for someone’s gift or kindness shown me?  Have I made someone happy today?  Have I created goals only to see them fail because comfort zone choices were less painful?  Am I true to myself or a fantasy of who I am not?

The amazing thing about character and integrity choices is that their outcome inevitably channels through a conscience; that pesky inner voice questioning even the best of intentions.  No one owns your conscious or thoughts.  They are yours and yours alone.  So, face up to your weaknesses and strive for a healthy and proud life each and every day. Never give up on yourself or your situation for it’s better to lose through conviction and sincerity than win through deception and malice.  It makes you feel righteous when you are true to yourself and your conscious is trouble free.  For a clear conscious is an accurate biometric measure of  happiness and success in life.

Building Character for a Better Life

 Author Unknown

Our culture abounds with stories about people of high character.  Social and business success are theirs.  They are admired; they are happier and healthier than others.  But often we can’t quite define why.

What is character?  It’s the total of what you have learned in life and how you put that knowledge to use.  One test of character is how a person responds quickly to an unusual situation.  Do you help the lost child?  Do you tell the clerk that he gave you too much change? Do you speak the truth even if it’s going to hurt you?

Ethics teacher William Forthman, PhD, says character is about independence and having faith in your own sense of direction.  It involves loyalty, responsibility, self-discipline, keeping promises, willingness to work, and the fulfillment of obligations to others.  Forthman, is quoted as saying, “It’s learned.”

It pays to analyze your character and work on areas that need attention.  Here’s how to do it.

• Put your life in order.  Pay your debts. Repair damage you have done to others.  Do meaningful work.
• Read up on what character is.  Appraise your character and set short-range goals for changes you want to make.  Work on yourself.  Find role models to emulate.
• Tell the truth.  Don’t shade it or ignore it.  See how many days you can go without telling a lie.  But never use truth as a weapon to hurt people.
• Be clear about your life goals.  Made your action match them.
• Keep your promises and commitments.
• Learn how to evaluate others.  Become a good judge of people, but don’t be arrogant and judgmental.
• Guard your reputation.
• Think before you act.
• Keep working on it.  Aristotle said, “We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”
• Keep your direction.  Those who do the honest and right things ultimately come out ahead.  History proves that.

The notable movie, Unbroken, exemplifies the apotheosis of character and inner strength with the notion of  “never giving up“.  It manages this by bringing to the screen the memoir of World War II survivor and Olympian, Louis Zamperini while at the same time questioning it’s audience:  Would I have had the strength and will to survive like Louie?