As I kick off the important lessons I’ve learned over the last 10 years of getting ready for my major career change, I knew that I’d be doing you a disservice if I jumped straight into the financials and skipped the character building skills you’ll need to be successful.
Warren Buffett, when asked what you should invest in first, made a point that you should invest in your education. Making money, and making businesses that are successful, takes more than just marketing know-how. They take leaders, people who have character.
So what does a person of character look like? And how can I be that person?
- Changing Your Personality Is Impossible
Lets face it, there is nobody else just like you. And just as you are unique, there is no reason that you should try to be someone else’s uniqueness. If you try, you’ll fail. You don’t need to be somebody else. You can build character by being the best you that you have ever been.
This is called being genuine.
So how does one move on from there, and become more than they currently are? It comes from doing the hard work of self-evaluation, and self-improvement. Trust me, this is monumentally difficult. But it is in doing difficult things, that we find the most growth.
Back when I started my 10 year prep plan to becoming a writer/independent filmmaker, I read a few books by John C. Maxwell. I strongly encourage you to pick up some of his book. In them, he emphasizes creating a growth plan.
This isn’t just something where you say I’m going to be better this year than I was last year, no, this is an actual goal-based plan that you can measure track, and evaluate. I was so inspired by this at the time, that I became a religious growth plan fanatic.
On my computer at work, every day, my screen would first boot up with my growth plan. I’d see an inspirational quote that applied to me at that time. I would read it, and try to live it. Often it was a verse or set of verses from the scriptures.
Then there was my spreadsheet, because I’m big into spreadsheets. In that spreadsheet, I had yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals. I updated this thing every month, and worked on the habits and attributes that I most wanted to solidify in my life.
Every year, I evaluated my progress, added new qualities that I wanted to have in my life, and made new goals and plans on how to achieve those things. There were multiple categories too. Some were spiritually based, some were character based, and some were family based. Few of them were financially based. My goal with this was to become the best person I could be.
I never wanted to be just like anyone else, because I loved who I was. Keep in mind, that I was an introvert, never popular, and often unsure of myself. You don’t have to be the most charismatic person in the world to love who you are. I’m still introverted. I’m still not a popular person. But I can talk to people. I’ve learned to be a salesman. I’ve learned to be articulate when the time comes for it. But for many of the qualities that I don’t have, I had to work hard at them, and I had to push myself beyond my comfort zone to achieve any level of proficiency in them.
I’m still the same me I was before, I’m just a better me for all that effort.
- What Characteristics Should You Focus On?
Just as in my growth plan, I suggest you break this down into categories. Keep in mind that even though I place some of these in one of the categories, working on them doesn’t just benefit that category, most of these cross into all categories. The categories are more to help you brainstorm ideas that you might not normally consider applicable to your overall goals, yet if you think about it, they impact every aspect of your life considerably.
- Business
Salesmanship, marketing, integrity, work ethic, service, organization, customer relations, employee relations, problem solving, etc.
- Spiritual
Sympathy, meekness, desire for righteousness, mercy, purity, peacemaker, long-suffering, charity, virtue, honesty, sincerity, love, faith, etc.
- Morals
Accountability, courage, boldness, compassion, discipline, adaptability, creativity, appreciation, assertiveness, authenticity, collaboration, confidence, kindness, wisdom, ambition, etc.
You can make other categories up if it helps you come up with character traits that you find admirable and would want to incorporate into your life. This is just an example.
- Why Go Through All That Effort?
Life is about growth. We want a growing family, a growing business, a growing economy. Humans are programmed to feel better about themselves when they have a growth mindset.
When we grow our personal strengths and character, we find more joy in every day living. Our family and friend relationships a more fulfilling, and we discover that success is more attainable in business and in life, if for no other reason than we have a positive outlook on where we are now, and where we are going.
One of the most depressing things in the world, is stagnation, and backtracking. These things can be addictive and harmful, but all too easy, whereas character growth is hard but rewarding in so many ways. Everything worth doing, generally is hard.
After just coming out of foot surgery, one of the 1st things that I’m required to do is start stretching and strength training. Sometimes it hurts. Sometimes I’m tired and don’t want to do it. But as I stick to my physical therapy, my foot gets increasingly better, I become more mobile, and I’m able to do more than I did the week before.
If you can learn to adopt a growth mindset, even establish a growth plan to keep you on track, and constantly work on adopting and improving all those desirable characteristics that define a good person, you’ll find that the world opens up to you.
Pessimism, depression, and anxiety lose their control over you. Grace, defined as enabling power, starts to take real hold in your life.
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