The next ingredient for character development is wellness. We need a basic sense of wellness from fundamental behaviors that contribute to the health of our entire being. Basic healthy behaviors include a range of actions that contribute to overall well-being and vitality. Some essential healthy behaviors include:

• Balanced Nutrition: Consuming a variety of nutrient-rich foods, including fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats.
• Regular Physical Activity: Engaging in moderate-intensity physical activities, such as brisk walking, swimming, or cycling, for at least 150 minutes per week.
• Sufficient Sleep: Ensuring an adequate amount of quality sleep each night, typically 7-9 hours for adults.
• Hydration: Drinking an ample amount of water throughout the day to maintain proper bodily function and overall health.
• Stress Management: Practicing techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, or yoga to manage stress and promote mental well-being.
• Avoiding Harmful Substances: Refraining from smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and the use of illicit drugs.

Incorporating these behaviors into daily life can significantly contribute to a healthy lifestyle and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. By adopting these behaviors, we are taking proactive steps to maintain and enhance our overall wellness. In essence, healthy behaviors serve as the foundation upon which we can build a vibrant and resilient life. Striving to uphold these principles not only benefits us personally, but also positively influences those around us, creating a ripple effect of well-being and vitality within our communities.

See Nine Pillars of Wellness and Wellness Basics for more on this topic

Building Character Beyond Basic Wellness

Building character is a little more involved and culturally defined. Individual goals of character development follow different paths. However, a few character traits are almost universal. Here are some valuable behaviors that build character worth considering:

• Practicing Gratitude: Gratitude is a powerful practice that can significantly impact your character. By acknowledging the good in your life and expressing appreciation for it, you cultivate a positive attitude and foster empathy towards others.
• Cultivating Self-Discipline: Self-discipline is the ability to control your impulses and stay focused on long-term goals. By cultivating self-discipline, you develop resilience, determination, and a strong work ethic, all of which contribute to a solid character.
• Embracing Empathy: Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. By practicing empathy, you can build meaningful connections with people, resolve conflicts peacefully, and demonstrate compassion in your interactions.
• Continuous Learning: Engaging in continuous learning not only expands your knowledge but also demonstrates a thirst for growth and improvement. Embracing new skills and knowledge fosters humility and a willingness to adapt, key traits of a well-rounded character.
• Resilience in Adversity: Facing challenges and setbacks with resilience builds character strength. It involves bouncing back from adversity, learning from failures, and developing the mental toughness to persevere in the face of obstacles.
• Honesty and Integrity: Honesty and integrity are fundamental to building a strong character. Upholding ethical principles, being truthful, and maintaining consistency in your actions contribute to earning the respect and trust of others.

Incorporating these healthy character building behaviors into your daily life can pave the way for personal growth and contribute to a more fulfilling and meaningful existence. Embracing these traits not only benefits you as an individual but also positively impacts your interactions with others and the communities you are a part of.

Developing Ethical Standards

In main stream society, ethical standards do apply. Failing to acknowledge them, or habitually justifying deviations, seriously impacts our futures. Ethical standards include: empathy, trustworthiness, industriousness, commitment, and gratefulness.

Stalwarts of character, such as Benjamin Franklin, devote a lifetime to nurturing and developing their moral fiber, deepening their connection to humanity, and strengthening their will. Their striving never attains perfection. We can’t repair every human failing. We fall short on all ethical fronts; however, each standard can be improved. The expectation that we can force perfection would overwhelm and depress, leaving us depleted; susceptible to destructive impulses and faulty reasoning.

Character Building Resources

The prudent path requires daily practices. We courageously do our best, addressing the most salient failing first. When carefully practiced, our souls develop, with new behaviors becoming nuanced, comfortable and habitual.

​We don’t simply change, impulses remain, errors occur; difficult work remains. Without proper resources, our efforts give way to impatience. All paths to lasting change must be accompanied by self-compassion, courage and connectedness. Self-compassion to accept the bumpy path to change, courage to accept imperfection, and connectedness to draw upon external support.

Humility and Change

Our human frailties default to imperfect attempts at change. We must, as we willingly do for a child learning to walk, accept the stumbling as we learn, courageously continuing. Large changes can’t be forced through rigid self-discipline alone. Conscious effort eventually exhausts, and we falter. Our strength must be bolstered with supportive others. Proudly, many wait to summon help. Frightened by the response from others, they wait until complete destruction, when the walls have collapsed, and recovery difficult.

The humility to recognize weakness early, and courageously seek help, may prevent the disasters. Early assistance can sure up our defenses and provide thoughtful advice. Above all, we need humility to learn new artful responses to stress.

See Humility: Open to Learn for more on this topic

Associated Concepts

• People of Character: These people have strong moral and ethical traits such as honesty, integrity, and compassion. Being a person of character involves consistently acting in accordance with those values, even when facing challenges or adversity.
• Character Strengths: These refer to positive, core aspects of an individual’s personality that consistently manifest in their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, contributing to their ability to thrive and experience well-being.
• Authenticity: This trait refers to the genuine expression of one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in alignment with one’s true self. It involves the ability to act in a way that is consistent with one’s own values, beliefs, and experiences, rather than conforming to external expectations or pressures.
• Self-Actualization: This refers to the process of realizing and fulfilling one’s potential, and striving to become the best version of oneself. It involves personal growth, achieving one’s aspirations, and pursuing intrinsic goals that lead to a sense of fulfillment and purpose in life.
• Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development: This theory outlines six stages of development that shape individuals’ moral reasoning and ethical decision-making. Growth occurs through cognitive growth and societal interactions.
• Quiet Ego: This refers to a state of being where an individual possesses a healthy sense of self-worth and self-esteem without needing to constantly assert their superiority or seek validation from others. People with a quiet ego have an inner sense of security and are less concerned with always being right or having their ego constantly validated by external achievements or recognition.

A Few Words by Psychology Fanatic

Developing our character isn’t automatic or seamless; changes work through a complex structure of starts and stops, hopes and despairs, successes and errors.  We must reach a little deeper, beyond the comfort of the past. We need strength derived from healthy behaviors in order to trudge through discouragement, and deal with failure.  It’s the course necessary for improvement. If we wait for an easier tomorrow—more congenial to change—we will drift further from the goal, making adjustments more difficult.

Pernicious games discourage persistence—denial, avoidance and blame. Our mind plays dodgeball with the difficulties. But if not now, when?

Mindful attempts to incorporate change coddled with courage, self-compassion and connection, invites growth.  Instead of being derailed by denial, avoidance, and blame, our life can transform. Areas previously beyond reach can become realities. As we move forward with healthy practices, anxieties subside, freeing cognitive resources once dedicated to simpler needs to survive to more complex desires to grow. Our habitually engagement in healthy and ethical behaviors invite goodness into our lives and many wonderful things begin to happen.