I was recently given the challenge to come up with 5 traits that I most want to improve in myself. This challenge was almost overwhelming. Not to think of five things I would like to improve on, but to narrow it down to only five. In complete honesty, the first question I had to ask myself was, what is a trait? Is it simply a skill? Is it something you are naturally gifted in? Is it just parts of your personality? I remembered that, when I was five or six, my sister led a program in our local school district called “Character First.” In this program, they had books titled with different character traits and on the cover of each book, it had an animal that seemed to showcase this character trait. Inside were in-depth definitions and examples. This was all a vague memory as it has been at least 15 years since then, but I figured with a quick Google search I could come up with a list of those traits!
Sure enough, one of the first hits was the website for Character First Character Traits. I found this picture with 49 character traits, their contrasting trait, and a short definition. This helped immensely as I was swimming with thoughts of what traits I have and what traits I want to improve in. As I recall, they used this in helping kids to see these traits and seek to apply them in their lives. This is similar to the challenge I have before me now, but I want to pick 5, specifically. I already had made a rough draft of ideas in my head for what I thought I could improve in, but this helped me put it into a cohesive thought.
After studying these traits, I came up with five traits that I not only wanted to improve in but that I thought complimented each other nicely.
Wisdom, Creativity, Diligence, Generosity, and Determination.
You can see I put wisdom at the top. While these are all just traits and can be aligned in any order, I believe wisdom is where many other things stem from. If you have no wisdom, from what will you produce creativity? How will you best know how to give generously? On the other hand, how will you gain wisdom if you have no determination to do so? If you work diligently yet have no creativity, what are you doing more than others? If you have diligence, determination, creativity, and wisdom, yet don’t give it generously, what kind of impact are you having on the world?
These are obviously very broad categories, and it is easy to just write them out and then leave it there with no real direction for how these will look in real life. Because of this, I want to give a scenario of where I could use more of each of these things.
Wisdom: In general, I want to be someone who people can come to for advice. I want to be able to see a problem, and no matter the situation, be able to come up with a solution for fixing said problem.
Creativity: Continuing on with this wisdom idea, I want to use that wisdom to not only think of a solution for the problem, but I also want to quickly be able to asses the situation and come up with an effective and efficient way to take care of it. Who knows, maybe even having fun along the way!
Diligence: After coming up with this idea, I then want to truly work to the solution. I don’t want to stand there thinking of all the possible things that could be done, I want to instead be doing them already, helping to solve the problem.
Generosity: And where is all this happening? I want to be doing this everywhere I go. Whether it’s someone with no money who needs help on something small or the CEO of a fortune 500 company, I want to give of myself unto others.
Determination: Finally, I want to be seeking out these opportunities. I don’t want to be hiding any of these learned traits in a bag somewhere. I want to go after skills and ideas and turn them into physical gain. I never want to lose the fire to do everything with my whole heart.
While still not specific examples for each of these traits, you’d be surprised how much this can change your day. Simply having these traits on your mind helps you to start growing in each of them. We are all imperfect humans and will always have improvements to make in our lives, but this is where I’m starting. Baby steps in the right direction are still steps, and if you surround yourself with other people making progress in the right direction, these steps get bigger and bigger.
My challenge to you:
Ask your five closest (or most honest) friends what they feel is your most defining character trait. Is it what you thought it was? Is it what you want it to be? If not, don’t mope. Go out and fix it.
So, what is a trait? While I found a list of traits and figured out what I wanted to improve on, I didn’t fully answer that question. What’s the difference between a skill and a trait? I may sound a bit like a hippie saying this, but after writing this, I have come to a conclusion: A skill is a gift that comes from the brain, while a trait is a gift that comes from the heart.