HOW TO BUILD A STRONG CHARACTER.
Charisma is derived from a Greek word, meaning an ability to elicit favour in other people. It's a magnetic quality of personality that people respond to as if it were magic. Charisma is almost like a magic word that confers power over others but character has a different origin.
Character comes from a Greek word, meaning chisel or the mark left by a chisel. And of course, a chisel is a sharp steel tool used for making a sculpture out of a hard materials like granite.
Chisel is also used for stripping away waste material from an object, stripping away stuff that might get in the way, in order to get down to the essential thing, the thing that really matters.
You've got to chisel your character out of the raw material of yourself, just like a sculptor had to create a statue.
Everything that happens to you, good or bad is an opportunity for building your character. Let me point out another important distinction between character and Charisma. You may have noticed it already.
In both its definition and its derivation, character doesn't refer to other people. It doesn't refer to having power over other people or getting other people to follow you.
Character is something that you have and that you are. You could be marooned on a desert island and your character would still be important. In fact, it would likely be very important in that situation. But charisma won't do you any good at all.
Charisma requires the presence of others while character is all about YOU. Character is the person you are after you've chiseled and have gotten past all the unnecessary material to what's underneath.
The essential point is this: I don't think character is something that just happens by itself, anymore than a chisel can create a work of art without the hand of an artist guiding it.
In both instances, a conscious decision had been made, a conscious process of design is at work.
Character is the result of hundreds and hundreds of choices you make that gradually turn who you are at any given moment into who you want to be. If that decision making process is not present, you'll still be somebody, you'll still be alive but may have a personality than a Character.
You can build your character by how you respond to what happens in your life, whether it's winning or losing every game, getting rich or dealing with hard times.
You build your character out of certain qualities that you must create and diligently nurture within yourself, just like you plant and water a seed.
You've got to look for those things in your heart and guts, you've to got chisel away in order to find them.
The really amazing thing about character is that; if you're sincerely committed to making yourself into the person you want to be, you'll not only create those qualities, you'll strengthen them and recreate them in abundance, even as you're drawing on them everyday of your life.
Character sustains itself and nurtures itself even as it's being put to work, tested and challenged.
Character is the means of transferring ideas into achievements.
● I don't mean to sound hard hearted about this but I believe that if you reach a certain age and if you really haven't achieved very much in your own terms, I don't think you can ascribe this to badluck or difficult childhood or any other external factor.
I personally feel that your strength of character does come into question at this point.
There maybe other things to do, but you should certainly do some soul searching and some character development.
Your growth is my concern.
