It’s the season for resolving to improve ourselves. It seems like half of the commercials on television are touting gym memberships, diet supplements, and other self-help products tied to New Year’s resolutions. Look out the window and you will see more people running and walking than usual. Visit a gym and you may have to wait in line to use your favorite machine.

The new year is also a good time to focus on improving one’s character. This may be tougher than losing weight or eating a more balanced diet. Character is more abstract. As such, it is hard to assess progress. When trying to lose weight, stepping on the scale each day provides objective progress (or not) toward one’s goal. But character is more elusive and harder to quantify. It is less clear where to start and what to do to improve character. That said, there is a strategy to learn about and to improve your character.

A starting point is to conduct a thorough self-analysis of your own character strengths. The VIA Character Strengths Survey is a valid tool for this self-assessment. Free and available online, the VIA Survey takes about 20 minutes to complete and provides a rank-ordered listing (from highest to lowest) of 24 character strengths organized into six overarching moral virtues (wisdom, courage, justice, humanity, temperance, and transcendence).

The character strengths of wisdom include curiosity and creativity. Included in courage are the strengths of integrity and bravery. Fairness and leadership contribute to the virtue of justice. The virtue of humanity is supported by strengths including capacity to love and social intelligence. Self-regulation and prudence are two of the strengths associated with temperance. Transcendence includes, among others, the strengths of gratitude and spirituality.

The second step in improving one’s character is to reflect on your own unique hierarchy of strengths. What strengths of character are you naturally high in? What are the lowest ones in your hierarchy?

Next, reflect on instances where you use your strengths of character to achieve a goal, overcome an obstacle, or deal with adversity. What works, and what doesn’t? Character scientists advise us to identify our top character strengths and learn how and when to use them purposively. Learning to leverage existing strengths is often found to be more effective than trying to improve a characteristic that you are weak in.

To hone your character strengths, focus on overt actions and behaviors associated with specific traits. Suppose you want to bolster strengths that make up the virtue of wisdom. Find ways to practice creativity, such as by enrolling in an art class. Cultivate curiosity by exploring new ideas and concepts. Writing a letter of gratitude, habitually thanking others for things they have done that benefit you, and practicing mindfulness can build the virtue of transcendence. Similar tactics can be devised to enhance the other moral virtues of courage, justice, humanity, and temperance. The key is to identify behaviors that support specific character strengths and virtues and to regularly engage in those behaviors.

Life is complicated and therefore it is important to acknowledge that a full and meaningful life requires multiple strengths of character. Think of your hierarchy of strengths as a toolbox. Hammers are great, but a carpenter needs many tools to build a house. Similarly, different goals, obstacles, and challenges in life require us to draw broadly from our character strength toolbox. Perseverance and grit are useful character strengths but, like a hammer, are not suited to all needs. Again, reflect on your strength hierarchy, and learn to match specific strengths to specific tasks and situations.

Unfortunately, the goals we set to improve ourselves often quickly drop by the wayside. Before the end of the month, the streets and gyms will be less crowded. Diets will be discarded, and most resolutions will be set aside.

As a practical exercise, then, turn back to New Year’s resolutions you may have made. Examine your hierarchy of strengths and map out a plan on how to employ your moral virtues and character strengths to achieve your goals this year. Strengths from the six moral virtues can, with a little thought and effort, allow you to stick with a plan to lose weight, eat better food, or quit or reduce alcohol (or other drug) use. By mindfully, purposively, and systematically using your strengths of character, you may stick with your New Year’s resolution and achieve your goal of self-improvement.

Note: The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the position of the United States Military Academy, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.

References

https://www.viacharacter.org

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