Pay attention to your character

Look for strong feats of your own character

As a newborn we have similar situations as many others. The older we become the more clearer our character will come through. The environment we are surrounded with will quickly change compared to our peers. This can have a positive or negative impact.

When you have some bad influences in your life you may have to fight harder mentally and sometimes every physically. Some people want to move themselves away from any potential risks or adversity. However only when you have to go through them you have a real posibility to build your character. At that specific moment it may seem like a hindrance rather than a blessing. Despite this feeling it will improve your character and you will be able to use this for many years to come.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. – Abraham Lincoln

If the people around you notice how much of a struggle you went through you are building reputation. You receive some credit for the hard work you went through and it can be used in the future when you are going through something difficult once again. Reputation is very difficult to build and very easy to get rid of. This is the reason why you should never be focussed on building your reputation. Focus your efforts on building your character, this will remain with you even if you lose your reputation. Character is what reputation is build on.

We tend to only look at how much respect we get from others, what we forget is that it first requires hard work so that others can respect you. They need to see your hard work and what your character is before they can trust you and show you respect. Look for challenges in life and take them head on. Going through these difficult situations will promote becoming stronger and more resilient against adversity. When people around you are undergoing difficult situations you can see how they try to get over it. Anyone going through them earn our respect and will receive more support.

Avoid letting stress immobilize you

Don’t let yourself freeze

Life has plenty of challenges, things sometimes become so difficult that they seem unsurpassable. Imagine having to go to the first day of a new job. Even if you worked in a similar job for years you can still be stressed. It becomes even worse if it’s your first job.

The moment you have something challenging at hand you can get overwhelmed not knowing what the next step should be. For example you reach the legal age to start driving with a car. It’s something you have never done before and you feel motivated to finally decide for yourself when you are going somewhere. Unfortunately despite the motivation you are feeling anxious about the new challenge. This may cause you to lose motivation and create the urge to quit driving. The best thing to do is to talk about the stress to the people close to you and to continue driving despite the stress that is caused. You may avoid to drive at the busy locations you started at but you should avoid driving completely.

In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive. – Lee Iacocca

When you are stressed about something don’t focus your efforts on the situation that invokes stress. Rather then focussing on it continue different things and implement a bit of it from time to time. For example if you are stressed about having to give a presentation in a week it wont help to constantly think about it. Rather spend some time on it and then go for a walk or call a friend for getting your mind some rest.

If you become stressed don’t burry your head and do nothing. Rather go for small but important actions that will help you in the long run. For example if you are stressed for the exam that is coming up and the learning goes slow do some research on the topic. It keeps you busy in the same topic but it changes your pace from constantly reading the same textbook. It’s better to stay busy with something linked to the topic rather than avoiding it completely. The more you avoid working on it the worse the result will become.

Sticking to your principles

Maintaining your principles

Everyone has their own principles. This can go from trying to help people as much as possible, always tell the truth, to consistency can make you achieve anything.

In the light of adverse it seems difficult to stick to your long time principles. Keeping yourself true shows true character. One of the examples is telling the truth all the time. In some situations it is hard to continue the same path. When you did something wrong at your work it may seem difficult to take your responsibility for it.

I’m not going to change my principles. I’m not going to change anything just to make money. – Lyoto Machida

It is very tempting to change ourselves and our character to achieve greater success and succeed at your goals. Even though this might increase the speed at which you obtain your achievements, it does not feel right and will hinder you in your future. A great example of this is when you want to make money and you are doing it by cheating people for their money.

Another example is by doing a group work at school and holding yourself away from the work. The work will still be done, because your team members will want to succeed. However you are not making yourself popular, this may hit you back in the future. Either because you have hurt the people around you or because you lack the skills to make something great through hard work. Great things in life aren’t build by freeloading on the back of others.

Maintain your high standard principles and improve your character this way. Keep going and see how your life gets better when you manage to beat difficult times.