From the category archives:

Spiritual

A Personal Lesson in the Importance of Character Development

January 16, 2009

Less than a week before the launch of this site, I was feeling worried that I might not meet my deadline (the one I promised my friend Khalid I will finish the site by. He always insists that I work by fixed dates). I was taking my family (wife and twins) to the Scientific Center [...]

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Reasons for Choosing Character Development

January 10, 2009

Theory

  • Purpose of Post: To explain my reasons for choosing character development as my approach for the year, and when is it a a suitable approach to take
  • I have never come up with a list of virtues I would really like to possess, and the list of vices that I would like to abandon or avoid
  • Some people have clearly defined principles but don’t know how to put them into practice. This leads them to act in ways that conflict with their principles
  • Others focus on developing habits, without knowing what principles they belong to. This could lead them to develop one habit while overlooking other habits that sabotage their efforts.
  • For example: being attentive when others speak can help build relations. But if you are sarcastic when you respond to what others have to say, you will not be able to advance your relations the way you wish
  • Character traits combine a number of habits to represent them. Being patient isn’t tied to a single habit. It’s demonstrated by a number of habits in different situations
  • The two main reasons why I want to take the approach of character development are:

  • To put my principles into practice

  • To more clearly recognize the habits that demonstrate the characteristics I wish to possess

  • I will NOT be developing all the characteristics I want to possess, or abandoning all my bad habits this year!
  • This year will involve me defining the characteristics I want to possess and to identifying the habits that fall under each characteristic, so that I can have a clearer plan for my personal development efforts.

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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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