Good Character is Important for Success in Life
Good character is important for success in your life, because it determines how well you can achieve your goals, whether others want to deal with you, and how well you fit in your groups.
When you work hard and are determined to achieve your goals, you can become more successful and confident in what you do. When you deal with other people fairly and honestly and show consideration for them, they will want to deal with you and even help you achieve your goals. By following the laws and rules of society, your culture, and your organizations, you will fit in and be accepted.
Questions you may have include:
How is character important in achieving goals?
What effect does character have on your relationship with others?
How does character allow you to fit in?
Achieving goals
When you have good or positive character traits of working hard and being conscientious about what you do, you are more apt to succeed in achieving your goals. This, in turn, can result in increased confidence in your ability to achieve those goals.
However, if you have character flaws, such as tending to procrastinate and being careless in what you do, you are more apt to miss out or not achieve your goals.
In addition, if you are doing work for another person, he or she wants to get things done properly and in a timely manner. Acting lazy or not doing what needs to be done makes a negative impression of your character to the other person. The result can be missed opportunities, because of your reputation of having poor character traits. It can sorely affect your success at work or in business.
Jane was invited to a pot-luck party at a neighbor's house, where each person was to bring something to eat. Dinner was to be served at 6 pm.
However, Jane was late and did not get to the party until 7:30. She also brought something that needed to be heated up for 30 minutes.
Her careless and inconsiderate actions were not appreciated by anyone at the party, and they judged her character as not very good. None of the people ever invited Jane to another gathering.
Others judge your personal character by your performance.
Relationships with others
Your reputation concerning how you treat other people precedes you. It can color the perception others have of your character before they must interact with you.
You may have character flaws that turn off other people in wanting to deal with you.
Sarah told Carly that Beth was often dishonest and would sometimes steal.
Because of this reputation, Carly was hesitant to invite Beth over to her place. However, several others told Carly that Beth was actually very honest and that Sarah had a grudge against her, so she was spreading rumors about Beth.
Actually, it was Sarah who had the poor social character traits of being dishonest and harmful to others.
If others see you being dishonest or harmful to others, they will judge your character traits negatively. However, if you seem kind and straightforward, they will judge you in a positive sense. Typically, people expect positive type of behavior.
Fitting in the group
Cultural, religious, and family groups typically have a set of rules or laws its members are expected to follow. Usually, there is an overlap, where some groups have similar rules of behavior. Often these rules also concern personal and social behavior.
If you are a member of some group, it is assumed that you follow the rules. If members see you breaking the rules or code of the group, they will consider you as having poor adherence character and may even punish you or force you out of the group.
Jackson's family had been dedicated Democrats for years and had always voted the Party ticket. However, Jackson felt that the political views did not fit his philosophy, and he switched over to support the Republican Party.
Jackson's father was outraged, as was his uncle. They did not want to have anything to do with this "traitor" in their family.
Members of a group will judge others in their group according to how they observe the rules. The law-abider is considered a good person, while the person who breaks some rules is thought of as having poor character, being a bad person, or being a sinner.
Those outside the group are not considered to have as high of character as those inside the group. For example, a Muslim might accept that a Christian was an honest person, but he would still consider him as an infidel and of low character with respect to his religion.
If you belonged to a tightly-knit cultural group and you adhered to their rules and traditions, others in the group would judge you as a person of high character.
Summary
Your character traits are important in being able to achieve goals, getting along with other people, and being accepted in society. They also determine how other people think of you and whether they care to interact with you.
These factors affect the success you can have in your life.