Increasing ability through developing character traits - Visions

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

I was first directed to that quote as I was in the Missionary Training Center preparing to serve as a full-time missionary. One of my instructors wrote that down for me as we were getting ready to leave. It is something that I really thought for a long time only applied to the Lord’s work and did not make the connection on how it can be beneficial to one’s personal life.

Fast forward a couple years in life after the mission was over and I started working with a few businesses. One of the first books recommended to me was Think and Grow Rich. I believe a great deal of what is taught about using the principle of vision to increase not only your business life but personal life, comes from this book. There are several ways of looking at applying this principle.

I have personally tried a couple different kinds at different points. I have gone the Think and Grow Rich route, writing out a “vision statement” and reading it once every morning and once at night out loud. I have also worked on daily meditation where I have visualized how I would feel upon achieving certain goals and milestones. Both have worked well to increase vision. It is something that I have not made a truly concerted effort at for some time. I decided this week would be a good time to start working on them again.

I have found a great way to start the day is not only to visualize achieving my goals but to envision how I would feel as I accomplish them. This has tended to put me in a great frame of mind and feel pretty good. My attempts at this the last week or so have been kind of hit and miss.

The next thing I did was to pull out some of my old vision or goal statements and kind of review them. I then started to think through where I would really like to be and start to map out a vision. I did this not only for myself but for my family as well. The latter I need to sit down and chat with my wife about as it is a team effort, but I was looking for a starting point to bring to the table.

Working on the above was a starting point for me. They are also some things that I have worked on hard to do in the past and felt I started to get some results from. However, I am admittedly bad on follow through which leads to another virtue or trait I will be working on later. I have applied these concepts haphazardly across the last few years. I hope to rectify that by my program of self improvement.

One of the sources of my decision to select Vision as a virtue was the list that Benjamin Franklin worked on. As I have gone through this week the following question kept coming to mind. How do you apply vision on a daily basis? How is it something that you can regularly work on? I of course thought of the daily visualizing and the goal statements. I also felt there was something that I was missing. I believe it was in how I view other people.

When we interact with other people we tend to immediately have some preconceived notions. How can we use vision to guide our actions with others? I believe that when we interact with or see others we should see them for their potential. That is not to say that we should just go along with whatever another person decides to do whether good or bad. People are still responsible for their choices. I did however notice that when I worked with others and kept this in mind my attitude towards them was different. Things that might have annoyed me before really didn’t seem to matter because I could recognize what they were trying to attempt and the potential for it.

How have you been able to apply the principle/trait of vision in your life?

Increasing ability through developing character traits

Cross posted from my other blog.

The two major cornerstones of what I have dubbed “Individualbility” are individual ability and individual responsibility. This week I want to look at individual ability and how it can be increased by developing character traits.

Improving your character is a great way to improve individual ability to achieve success in anything that you do. There are a plethora of character traits one can look at improving upon or acquiring. On our site we mention five off the top.

• Integrity
•Courage
•Persistence
•Faith
•Vision

There are also many others that people would argue you can work on. Our site includes even more, including those things that Benjamin Franklin picked to work on. Franklin made a conscience effort to work on what he dubbed 13 virtues. He would pick one to work on every week and then rotate through them continually. Looking back at his life I would say that he did very well at developing those character traits and is a great example of increasing your chances at success by building your character.

I personally decided to start working on a character trait every week. Last week was my first week working on this and decided to focus on integrity. My focus was not only on being completely honest with those I interacted with but being honest with myself and work to cut out the little internal lies we tell ourselves. It made for a very interesting and eye opening week.

There is one example that really stands out in my mind. I was chatting with some coworkers about midweek and the subject of getting in shape came up. I was comparing notes with a couple people and one of the ladies mentioned that she likes playing the Zumba dance game on the Nintendo Wii. I mentioned that we had a Kinect for our Xbox 360 and loved the dance central game. I was about to say, “I usually play it about once a week, but I want to play it more often.” Well, although it would only be known to me it would be a blatant lie. I haven’t played that game in at least 2 months. Some people would say, that wouldn’t harm anybody because how would they know anyway. As I caught myself and refrained from making that false statement, I thought about my integrity. If it is ok to tell one little lie like that, then where does that lead to?

I do not share the above story to brag, but to illustrate a real life example of making an effort to focus on that weekly character trait. If my focus on developing the character trait of integrity had not been at the forefront of my mind, I probably would have made the statement without thinking about it.

We all have things that we want to improve on and do better in our lives. I firmly believe that by focusing on developing good character traits, those other areas of our lives will start to fall in line. Our personal character really does determine our path. The type of individual we focus on becoming will bring those types of individuals and opportunities into our lives.

As I move on each week focusing on a different character trait, I will post my progress on my personal blog. For a great discussion of integrity, I suggest John Huntsman Sr’s book Winners Never Cheat.

What character traits do you think are the most important develop? Why?