Improve your character through mindful striving or let your character worsen through negligence and obliviousness.
~ Buddah
Character education is just as important to education as reading, math, and science.
~ Maria Montessori
In all the hustle and bustle of life -- as you navigate school, a career, and building healthy relationships -- when do you find time to cultivate you? Do you set aside time to mold who you are, and who you want to be for the future?
There are unique traits in each of us that comprise our personality and make us who we are, Some traits are stronger in us than other traits, and some traits are stronger in us than in other people. Recently, a professor of mine showed me a short video called 'The Science of Character' that really made me stop and think about who I am as a person at the beginning of her life, and who I want to be as life goes on.
The crux of the philosophy behind the book 'Character Strengths and Virtues' by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman (which the video linked above is based on), is that there are 7 virtues found throughout history that are comprised of 24 universal character traits. These virtues can be found in all cultures, and each person in the world posses different traits in varying levels. The researchers discovered that focusing on our unique trait strengths contributes to our happiness, and that we can also cultivate the traits we are not naturally gifted with in order to be more fulfilled overall.
The 24 Traits
I was naturally curious about which traits were my strong suit. So I went to the VIA Institute On Characters's blog and took the free character traits survey.
What I found was that my strongest trait (according to the survey) is Appreciation of Beauty -- namely, being able to find beauty in the world everywhere I look. Out of all the 24 traits, I believe these are my 5 strongest:
Gratitude
Fairness
Love
Curiosity
Appreciation of Beauty
Out of the remaining traits, the ones I am determined to cultivate are:
Forgiveness
Social Responsibility
Perseverance
Perspective
Spirituality
I chose one trait from each virtue category to grow in myself. I want to be the most well-rounded person I can be. Not just by learning all about human anatomy, and advertising, and 17th century music when I will never need to know these things in my chosen career, but by having a healthy, well-rounded character filled with desirable traits, not an emotional garden filled with the weeds of a bad character.
So what about you? Do you want to be a more well rounded individual, and cultivate a good character for your future self? A great way to begin is by assessing your current strengths, and picking a few traits where you are lacking, and mindfully focus on growing them. The VIA Institute on Character has a suggestion for 24 ways to put your strengths to work. I personally am going to make my own list, tailored to the strengths I want to focus on, and you can too, using the one provided as a jumping off point if you like.
The first step to making your future better is acknowledging that you are the one with control over it. Start building your good character today.
