Developing your character as a person is a step to developing your whole self. Character is made up of your values, your morals, and the basic way you react to situations. Character is who you are when you are caught off-guard. When you are stressed, when you are caught in traffic, your character shows with how you react to these situations. Character is what is left when all the trappings that serve as eye candy to other people: possessions, influence, and power, are stripped away.
Character is who you are when faced with situations that require you to compromise. It is who you are when you are tempted to do the wrong thing. To have character that worth commending, you have to learn and practice it on a day-to-day basis. Though they say that values and morals are being learned during childhood, a person has the capacity to learn and unlearn well into old age. Further, there are a lot of people who have had negativity programmed into their systems ever since childhood who have learned to go past that in their adult years. Their secret is that they have chosen to reprogram their thoughts.
Thus, if they have been able to unlearn negative things and learn positive ones, you can unlearn your old values and adopt new ways to look at and deal with the world. In this regard, there are three areas that are helpful for you develop the character you like as an individual. The steps may not be the easiest ones but they sure are fulfilling. Once you get the hang of these, your whole self will improve.
Leading the long list is integrity. When you are honest to the hilt, people will learn to trust you for your unwavering and uncompromising honesty. But you have to keep in mind that honesty needs to be tempered with discretion. You have to learn when not to disclose certain matters, and when to do so. Your motives have to be pure and good when you do decide to use honesty and integrity in making strategic decisions.
A component of Integrity is being you. Who you are when others are not watching is a sign of integrity. Living a dual, hypocritical life is dishonesty and worse is that, you are only hurting and fooling yourself. You also lead people to lose trust in you because of the dubiousness of your character. Having integrity means being able to stick to your convictions no matter what.
Consistency is also an integral part of one's character. When you act in a consistent way, when you are productive in a consistent manner, you then earn the trust of people, and you also impress your bosses. Consistency is an important part of a career, and it is what would define the line between keeping and losing your job. The last area I suggest is the area of compassion. Compassion is the capacity to extend grace to, or to have mercy on people who are in dire need, who have wronged you, or basically are in a place that requires your mercy. Without compassion on others, you are nothing more than a robot. Without compassion, our world will be a place where productivity and money are the only things that run it.
To have compassion on others is not restricted to giving street children money. Compassion could also mean giving your mother a lift home because her car broke down. Compassion could also mean giving your wife a back rub because her pregnant belly is straining her spine. Character in a person is one of the things that would get others' respect. It is a component that occupies a huge part of the personality, and it is what is left when everything else is stripped away. Develop your character, and consequently, you will develop your entire self.