How to Strengthen Your Character and Improve Your Life

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How is your impulse control? What rules do you follow? Are any of them non-negotiable?

Would you like people to respect you more? Would you like to respect yourself more?

Good news! It’s not too late. It’s never too late. You can take steps to strengthen your character.

“Character” is defined as “the inherent complex of attributes that determines a person’s moral and ethical actions and reactions.” In simpler terms, your character is what leads you to make the decisions you make and perform the behaviors you do in everyday situations.

Are you ready?

8 Steps to Strengthen Your Character

1. Know Your Strengths – Scoring yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 take an honest assessment of yourself in the following areas:

• Honesty
• Perseverance
• Courage
• Fairness
• Judgment
• Social Awareness
• Forgiveness
• Mercy
• Self-Control
• Patience
• Humility
• Gratitude
• Hope
• Faith
• Optimism
• Love

2. Know Your Weaknesses – Look carefully at your results from #1 to and make a list from lowest to highest. Why? Because those weaknesses are where you want to focus your energy.

“Every weakness is an opportunity for God to show His strength in your life.” 

3. Stop Making Excuses – Okay look at your list again. No excuses. No blaming others. You can’t improve areas you won’t admit need improvement. Now adjust your list, be accountable, and choose to change.

4. Ask For Help – Be brave. Ask your friends and family to help you by suggesting ways you can maximize your strengths and improve your weaknesses. Listen without being defensive. Remember your goal. Now adjust your list one last time (for now).

5. Be a Future- thinker – Set goals. Work on one or two things at a time. If you struggle with honesty, set a goal to tell only the truth TODAY. Then do it again tomorrow. If you want to increase hope, memorize quotes and verses that encourage hope. What would you do to grow in mercy?

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

6. Set Healthy Boundaries – This one can be hard. We all say we want healthy boundaries, but the truth is we often model the attitudes and behaviors of our friends. So, setting boundaries may mean limiting the time you spend with people who don’t model honesty, mercy, kindness, etc. until you feel you’re stronger in those areas.

“Evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of any relationship is your responsibility. You do not have to passively accept what is brought to you. You can choose.” ~Deborah Day

7. Quit Competing and Comparing – This is a personal project. It doesn’t really matter if you’re more honest than your friends if you’re not honest . . . and the same is true of the other character qualities.

“Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you.” ~Unknown

8. Forgive Yourself and Be Persistent – You’re not perfect. You’re not going to be perfect . . . you’re going to be better. It is important that you forgive yourself for past weaknesses. You have been and are forgiven so that you can know better and do better. Keep trying. Don’t give up.

He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

Psalm 103:12

I’ve made my list of my character strengths and weaknesses and starting today I’m making intentional persistent efforts to strengthen my weaknesses.

Join me tomorrow when we’ll take a look at ways you can encourage your children and help them maximize their strengths and work on their weaknesses.

“People of character do the right thing even if no one else does, not because they think it will change the world but because they refuse to be changed by the world.” ~Michael Josephson

What do you think is a common excuse people make about a character weakness? What is your strongest character trait?

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