Building character is something we must work at on a regular basis. No matter how hard we strive to improve ourselves, the task never ends as long as we are still alive. Our character--moral strength, self-discipline, fortitude and other behavioral qualities--is not something we are born with. We may be born with certain traits, and qualities that help to determine the kind of personality and the strength of character that we might potentially have. But character is something that has to be cultivated and built day-by-day, and year-by-year throughout our lives.
The first step toward building character is to learn to recognize our faults. Some of us may believe that we are faultless, but we are not likely to be viewed that way by others. We all have faults. It is a basic part of being human. When Benjamin Franklin decided to analyze his character, he concluded that he had thirteen serious faults. Among his self-diagnosed faults were wasting time, stewing around over trifles, and arguing and contradicting people. Franklin saw his faults as serious character flaws, and was determined to do something about them. Each week, Franklin would select one of his faults and do battle with it, keeping records of his progress.
How many of us are willing to acknowledge our faults and do battle with them? How many of us can readily see how we could improve our character? Perhaps those of us who cannot recognize our faults should focus on the most common faults we see in other people, and then seriously consider the possibility that we might have some of the same faults that we find so distasteful in others. If we are totally honest with ourselves, most of us will find that we have so many faults that it would be an impossible task to deal with all of them at the same time. So, like Ben Franklin, we too can tackle just one of our shortcomings at a time. We can concentrate on self-improvement in one area until we feel we have made sufficient progress to move on to another area.
Many of us place a high priority on such things as proper nutrition, adequate exercise, and preventive health care. Perhaps we should also place a high priority on character building. Is character building any less important than body building? Is there any doubt in any of our minds that our character is less than perfect? Wouldn't self-improvement in this area benefit us as well as those around us? Character building may never become as popular as diet and exercise programs. But then why do we always have to follow the pack? Why can't we just decide what is right for us and do it, no matter how little company we have.
Copyright 2014 Allen W. Smith
TB-47—Posted 05/26/2014
well said