Character Building

What is Character

All the qualities that make a person and make them different from others. The pattern of behavior or personality ; nature; kind or sort.

  • Good character is the motivation to do what is right,
  • The true test of character is measured in our response to the pressure of difficult situations,
  • Moral expectations,
  • Sense of behavior or humanity.

“Success in golf (and life) depends less on strength of body than upon strength of mind and character.” -Arnold Palmer

Components of Character or Character Traits:

“You become what you think about,” Earl Nightingale

You will be amazed at the impact the following traits can have on you by just learning what they mean. If you learn what these traits mean you will probably use them daily. If you can master the use of these traits, you will become a person of great character. This may not be the most exciting “tool” that we provide for you, but it will probably help you the most in your career and more importantly in your daily life. Please start by thinking about and learning the following words;

  • caring, feel concern or interest,
  • cooperation, the act of working together,
  • courage, the ability to control fear when facing danger or pain; bravery,
  • empathy, the ability to identify oneself mentally with a person or thing and so understand his or her feelings or its meaning,
  • fairness, being just, unbiased, in accordance with the rules,
  • honesty, in an honest way. Fair and just; not cheating or stealing. Free of deceit and lies; sincere,
  • integrity, the quality or state of being of sound moral principle; uprightness, honesty, and sincerity,
  • initiative, cause to begin, start working. The ability to initiate things; enterprise,
  • optimism, a tendency to take a hopeful view of things, or to expect that results will be good,
  • peacemaking, free from disturbance or disorder,
  • perseverance, continue steadfastly, especially in something that is difficult or tedious,
  • respect, admiration felt towards a person or thing that has good qualities or achievements; politeness arising from this. Attention, consideration,
  • responsibility, being the cause of something. Having to account for one’s actions. Capable of rational conduct; trustworthy,

We believe that character can be built or learned, character can be changed and if we create the right conditions, change will occur.

We are just trying to help you understand character. As you understand character you will use it to your advantage and for the benefit of people around you.

Did you know that you are not born with character. You actually develop your character and self-esteem through the experiences you have. We will try and help you model good character for you to develop and provide the knowledge of what skills are needed to develop character traits.

Role Models For Character

The traditional ways kids have learnt character have been at home, neighborhoods, community support agencies and schools. Unfortunately many kids don’t get the needed attention from these areas and in some cases the influences are not good.

A lot of kids spend more time watching TV and playing video games. There is no question that you are entertained and that it can be a fun way to spend time. The problem is that a lot of what you see and hear from TV, videos and movies doesn’t really show you what good character is all about.

Do you know that the more bad things you see happen, the more likely you are to start accepting them. This can be a great challenge for you and a good reason that your character needs a little work or improvement.

Many kids look to heroes in sports and music to shape their character. If you look at the character of many of these people you will recognize that they really aren’t the right influences. They may be very talented and entertaining and therefore possible role models for their professional accomplishments, but lets not confuse it with role models for character.

Think about changing the phrase “I want to be like him or her when I grow up” to “I would like to perform like him or her when I grow up”. Perform relates to the skills that person has in their sport, music etc. but does not necessarily include their character. Wouldn’t it be kind of neat if kids could send the message to these people that we will like and support you if you change your character instead of ” we love you and you are the greatest ” etc.

Activities; (more to come)

  1. Skits on fairness. Think of situations where you have seen an unfair behavior and then act out the appropriate response from someone with good character.
  2. Let’s go through a little character test and tune-up. Start with yourself and compare yourself to the character list at the top of the page. Ask a friend, parent, teacher or sibling etc. to review how well you do on the list of character traits. Ask them to be totally honest. Be prepared to listen, respect their opinion, think about what they say and try and change.
  3. Surround yourself with good character. Think about character when you choose friends and join teams or associations. Think about the character traits and find out if the people you hang out with have good character. We have all heard the phrase of how you like to hang out with someone that is “cool” but you probably haven’t heard the phrase ” I would like to hang out with that person because he/she has good character.”
  4. Let’s look at a common situation to help us think about character improvement. You have probably seen people drive a little to fast through areas with kids around the streets. Can you think of a few of the character traits that these people should work on. (Hint – respect the safety of kids is a good starting point).
  5. Let’s think of the environment and how people can improve their character to benefit the environment. Think of ways that respect , perseverance and cooperation could be used on the environment. Can you think of other character traits that could be used on the environment.

Congratulations from TeachingKidsBusiness.com! You have taken another big step in developing your business skills and career preparation. You will find this to be a very helpful skill, as you use it daily. Don’t stop here!