Abraham Lincoln said, Reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree

Do You Have Good Character or Bad Character?

Everyone has character. People sometimes think of character as something a person either has or doesn’t have. They may say, «He has character,» meaning he has good character. We intuitively recognize the truth that everyone has «character» and we distinguish between «good» and «bad» character.

LIST OF GOOD AND BAD CHARACTER QUALITIES

What are the character qualities, or character traits, that make up a person’s character? How can they be built into a persons life? Can they be changed?

If you and I were each to make a list of good «character qualities,» or «character traits,» we would probably both include such words as honesty, integrity, dependability, loyalty, enthusiasm, etc. Of course, there are many others that could be added.

The list of character traits that I like to use is the list identified by the Character Training Institute of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Character Training Institute list breaks «character» down into forty-nine specific, definite, character qualities, or traits. (click here to view a list of character traits). Having such a list of character traits allows us to focus on specific qualities in order to build «good character» into our lives.

By breaking character down into its basic elements in this way, we are better able to focus on building specific qualities into our lives. As we work on strengthening specific good character qualities, our overall character is improved.

For example, «honesty» really consists of several more basic qualities – truthfulness, dependability, diligence, etc. Therefore, when I work on becoming more honest, I do so by becoming more truthful, more dependable, more diligent, etc.