From the monthly archives:

January 2009

What IS Character Development, Anyway?

January 5, 2009

Theory

  • Character development and personal development are not the same thing
  • Personal development: A basic overview of personal development is that it covers the following 5 areas:
    • Beliefs: Our understanding of the world, and our relation to it (e.g. whether we believe in God, trust our intuition, if it is possible for us to succeed, etc)
    • Principles: The values we uphold and seek to live by (e.g. “I want to exercise my free will in making choices in my life”)
    • Character: The principles we actually live by and the characteristics that can be attributed to us, based on our conduct (e.g. being truthful, patient, etc)
    • Habits: The way we consistently behave
    • Behaviors: Our conduct at any given moment
  • Character development makes “Character” the focus, and considers everything else from the point of view of character
    • It is a branch of personal development and, more accurately, an approach to personal development

Practice

  • Check again for the upcoming posts, where we will look at how character development should be approached :D

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My Focus for the New Year

January 4, 2009

New Year’s Resolutions come in all shapes and sizes. Dropping a bad habit (e.g. smoking), adopting a new habit (e.g. regular exercise), completing a project (e.g. a website), starting a project (e.g. um… a website?) and developing virtuous traits (e.g. truthfulness) are all different types of resolutions and ways to develop as individuals.
Towards the end [...]

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Resolutions without Resolve

January 2, 2009

Theory

  • People don’t usually fulfill their resolutions because they don’t WANT to fulfill them
  • There are 3 main reasons for why this is the case:
  1. They want the results without the process involved in achieving them (e.g. a healthy body without a healthy lifestyle)
  2. They are afraid of the by-products their success will bring about (e.g. jealousy, responsibility, etc)
  3. Their resolutions are borrowed cliches that don’t match their personal desires (e.g. to quit smoking, even though they’re perfectly happy smoking)

Practice

  • Enjoy the process of fulfilling your resolutions
  • Accept the by-products that come with your success
  • Select only the resolutions that stem solely from your personal desires
  • Pay close attention to your emotions. Write what you feel down, and question yourself to dig deeper to find the cause of your feelings and why you may not wish to see your resolutions through

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