Character Development: The 2nd Grandest Pursuit

Quote of the Day: You Just Have to Risk it Sometimes

Seed of the Day

To conquer inaction caused by fear of failure consider Edison’s recommendation; “to succeed faster you

must have to increase your chances of failure

The Seed that Grows Good

Where honour ceaseth, there knowledge decreaseth. The natural question is, what has respect got to do with success? Respect is a virtue that most people see as either really modest or out of place when compared with values like integrity, hard work, honesty etcetera. Respect is a seed, it’s one of the most basic and sometimes most overlooked values that can be developed and applied. It is an essential ingredient for a pleasing personality. Have you ever wondered how some people get to see what most other persons can’t? There are three categories of people, few who see things before they happen, many who realize it when it happens and the overwhelming majority who have no idea of what happened.

Respect as an attitude when rightly applied creates a consciousness, which tends to see beyond the superficial, whether it’s dealing with people things or ideas. The cure as I see it, said Herbert Hall is to be found in the cultivation of the faculty that finds some good in everything and everybody. The ability to see good is a function of respect. A plunge begins when one starts failing to recognize because they have refused by failure to observe and regard the good in anything. Who is as blind as the one who refuses to see? The ability to see good has long characterized some of the finest minds.

Like many other virtues, respect is not bestowed. Cultivating a faculty that finds good in everybody and everything begins by developing an attitude of respect for everybody and everything for what they do or are. You may not respect a dog for being a dog and you a human but you can give its due regard for what it does. Why bark when you have a dog? One who develops the capacity for respect creates the capacity to see good. Respect is a reward anyone can receive who practices their highest virtues.

Seed of the Day

Pure upright living and steady devotion to principles are the surest foundations of any success worth having - Julia Ward Howe

Increase Your Capacity to Receive

To whom much is given much is expected. He who seeks to receive must first create the capacity to receive that which he seeks. Too often than naught the tendency like I observe, reclines towards asking first to be given rather than creating the capacity to receive. The unfortunate eventuality with the first is that we get what we want but may never have/keep it or make best use of it. Eventually the much you receive is only tantamount to the capacity you have created to receive. It all revolves around the principle of first thing first. It’s like the lady who dearly sought for job, but lost it as soon as she got it. The reason is obvious, not that she asked what was too much for her to handle but that she did not first create the capacity to receive what she wanted. You risk losing what you ask when you get it, if you don’t first create the capacity to receive it. If it turns out that you are not fit for the job you have undertaken give it up and find another, better still refine yourself or adjust the job until it comes within your capability while you work on your competence, or else you will get progressively less suitable. A pilot may not be able to change the direction of the wind but he can very well adjust the positions of his ruder to maximize the dynamics of the wind for his movement. It answers much in drawing closer to the idea that opportunity abounds plenty not only to receive but to increase efficiency, to make far reaching impact because you have first created the capacity to receive. But it begins with a paradigm shift, from seeking what you can get to asking what you can give.

It’s funny sometimes how people think of giving when it’s talked about. I have never seen one give what one does not have. The golden rule of giving tells us that it’s always coming back to you what you have given. So the question you should be asking is; what have I given myself that I can give back to others? If you are sincere with this question you will learn to give more time to the improvement of yourself not for what you want to get but what you want to give. You owe a responsibility not just to yourself but to your immediate surroundings and possibly a wider community to improve yourself, because whether you know it or not another’s improvement and eventual success is tied to you living up to your responsibility improvement wise.

The world wants to meet you. If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor said Emerson, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door. Here is a summary of all that has been said.

1.       There is plenty opportunity to increase your capacity
2.        Ask what you can give first and let every other thing find its place
3.        You can’t give what you don’t have
4.        Give yourself such that you can’t hold back from giving out that which your have
5.        The much you have is the much you have created capacity to receive
6.        There is no lack of opportunity for service, only lack of ability to serve
7.        Be a channel not a container. You put a limit to this capacity the moment you start thinking and functioning like a bucket rather than a hose.

Ask first what you can give, not what would be given you and you will open yourself to a wider horizon of opportunities.

How to Form a Doer's Character

Thoughts are powerful, they are seeds that take fruit to form words, words when properly applied prompt actions, actions solidify into habit and habit weaves character. Character said D. L. Moody is what you are in the dark. A doer is marked by his ability to focus and work out his but when he comes up to situations that he would otherwise not feel like performing. I believe it was Martin Luther King Jr. who said if you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Movement creates room for progress. It’s that sort of attitude that credence to the character in a doer. Integrity is a virtue upon which character can be developed. Fundamentally, integrity is your ability (morally, intellectually, physically, etcetera) to actually match your actions with your words. A doer doesn’t derive satisfaction in seeking or making excuses not to live up to responsibility, though situations may warrant.

It’s in the character of a winner to win as it’s in the character of a child to make himself known by his acts. The Biblical saying is true, folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. Winning is by no means automatic, it involves the process that forms the character. The best time to plant a tree was fifty years ago, the next best time is now. Now is the best time to start becoming, practicing and achieving. Success that endures is not usually expressed as a big bang if you watch closely. You never say oh I've missed my opportunity, they come in their cycles - opportunity. Opportunity always come to the one who prepares himself and shows determination.

A train of thought believes that one may never become what one aspires because of missed opportunity or because people who eventually achieve or become such are older or younger. That’s another lie people buy from polls and survey results. You may end up achieving nothing if you keep looking at people and polls. It’s not unlikely that the reason why many who would have loved to respond and be doers do nothing is not only because they consider their effort insignificant compared to the magnitude of the problem  but it’s also because they look too much at external factors and then put a big tape measure on themselves, ruling themselves down and out. You may not know what you are capable of until you set out and give it your best. We often forget to remind ourselves that what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Let this mind be in you which is in every doer, you can achieve anything you set your mind to achieve, going about it in the right manner.