Read first tool here
After discovering your God-given assignment, you need another tool to enable you stand out.
Character.
In the final analysis of your life, it is your character that will prove to be more important than your career, job or money.
Though you are going to school to get an education which is a process involved in developing your character, in the end your character will triumph over your education.
Lack of character has brought down a lot of young talented people.
Even after death, Mandiba of Africa, Nelson Mandela is still well loved and celebrated. Because of his good character. So as you discover your talents and develop them, build your character.
John Maxwell said the following things about talented people:
- Talented people may feel superior and expects special treatment but a person with character knows better that all men are equal.
- Talented people tend to go through shortcut. Only character will prevent you from going through shortcut.
- Talented people are praised based on what others see them build, but men of character build what is inside them.
- Talented people are gifts to the world but character protects the gifts.
What is Character?
Character means living life in such a way that you won’t be scared to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
While growing up, my father had a parrot. He will put this parrot outside the house, above the threshold when he is going out in the morning. When he comes back in the evening, he will take it in.
Now this particular parrot could talk. It will narrate every atrocity and crimes my brother and I did while my father was at work.
As a kid, I loved football, and my dad, when going out will warn me not to go to the next compound to play. But I never listened.
Once my dad was out of the house, I will head to the next compound to play ball. When it is almost dad’s arrival time, I will rush in through the back door, wash my legs and sit down gently as if the earth doesn’t rotate.
The beloved parrot who saw everything will not talk until my dad arrives. Once it sees my father, this bird will start narrating everything we did to my father. Despite being severely beaten and punished, my brother and I will still go and play ball the following day. In the same compound.
At times, we will threaten the parrot that we will kill it if it tells our father anything. This bird will not say anything. Until it sees my dad. Then its confidence will increase, and it will tell my father how we threatened to kill it.
This bird so much spoilt many football playing opportunities for me that we had to kill it.
Now imagine if I was doing something illegal and this parrot tells my dad about it, imagine the effect and consequences that will come from it. That is character.
Three Important Things Needed For a Good Character
Having The Right Values
Someone said “teaching kids to count is fine but teaching them what counts is the best.”
Somebody who does not value his/her body will use it to sell biscuits.
Telling yourself you want to be happy is not enough. Being good is important.
Many want to be successful but don’t care about values. Many are happy at other people’s expense. That’s why kidnappers, ritual killers, Yahoo-Yahoo, etc., are rampant.
Put the right values in place to build your character.
Definition of Value: Value is the degree of importance given to something. It is also that which is valued or highly esteemed, such as one’s morals, morality, or belief system.
Don’t be talented alone. Develop a good character. If you value yourself, you will raise your standard. Place value on yourself now, so someone else will not make mockery of you.
Determination to Do the Right Thing
People of character know that there is no right way to do the wrong thing. Living life is like constructing a building. If you start it wrong, you will end it wrong.
Be the Right Person
Work on yourself to be pleasant and be a nice person. Choose to want to be the right kind of person.
Eleven Ways to Be the Right Kind Of Person
- Be honest enough to admit your short comings.
- Be Brilliant enough to accept flattery without being arrogant
- You must be tall enough to be above deceit
- Be strong enough to treasure love
- Be brave enough to welcome criticism
- Be compassionate enough to understand human frailties
- Be wise enough to recognize your mistakes. It is not weakness when you admit that you are wrong.
- Be humble enough to appreciate greatness. You will not be jealous of others.
- You must be staunch enough to stand by your friends.
- You must be humane enough to be thoughtful of your neighbor.
- Be righteous enough to be devoted to the love of God.
Most of us don’t know our true character until we run out of gas.
Your character is more important than your skills.
Eight Things That Will Help You to Build a Strong Character
- Decide to be self-supporting. You are in charge of you. No one owes you anything. There is no way you can have self-esteem if you think it’s someone else job to take care of you. Live your life as if knows you. Take care of yourself first before anything. You are responsible for yourself.
- Seek Continual Education. The day you stop learning is the day you start dying. Readers are learners. Learners are leaders. There is always room for improvement and improvement can be gotten through education. Either formal or informal.
In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins. Cash. Or Experience. Your experience cannot be taken away from you.
- Spread Kindness. Your act of kindness should have nothing to do with how you feel or the struggles you face. Wisdom is good. But kindness is Important.
- Work On Yourself. Work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Until you conquer yourself, you can’t conquer your world. The most difficult person to conquer is yourself. Not the devil. Be tough on yourself. It’s easier to be tough on others than oneself. Don’t give excuses to be soft or go through shortcut.
- Pursue Excellence. People will not know how long it takes to do something, they only want to know how well it is done.
- Add value to others daily. Make the situation of the other person better than when you met them.
- Practice Persistency. People Of Character don’t bail out when things are tough. They always go extra mile. Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl If you must but Never give up.
- Determine to be Determined. There is no true success that comes overnight. Character is not achieved overnight. It is as a result of long process. Durability is stronger than talent. It is better than law, It kis more real than potential and valuable than intellects.
The quality of your life, relationship and career is deeply affected by your character or lack of it.
To be continued…
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