What is caracter and how do I develop it?

[WALKYRIA]

What is it and how to develop a strong(or evn stronger) character especially as a young INTP?
President Lincoln is said to have had a faultless caracter. Einstein also was one of a kind.
Is it the ability to not crack under pressure( or social pressure)? The ability to think for oneselve? The ability to know oneself?
Is it related to wisdom and experience in life?
WHat is it and especially how do I know if I have someone with caracter in front of me or just some lame fake? What tests do I use? Especially if the person apppears to be great.( looks, status,..Etc).

With the growing influence of the net, it's becoming increasingly easy to confound knowledge or earning power or any superficial attribute or even information with wisedom and caracter.
Caracter( especially strenght of character) is often portraited in movies and is obviously different from personnality although it lost interest from the world...

Why am I focusing on this trait? Well, It seem that with time the single most important thing when deciding for a long term friend or girlfriend or even business is caracter; which I presume is not correlated with MBTI, right? We know by now how to develop personnality; now what about caracter? Caracter is not personnality after all...


About Lincoln (who also was said to suffer from Chronic depression): businessman G. S. Hubbard later related, “our intimacy increasing. I never had a friend to whom I was more warmly attached. His character was almost faultless. Possessing a warm and generous heart, genial, affable, honest, courteous to his opponents, persevering, industrious in research; never losing sight of the principal point under discussion"

Einstein Quote: "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."

 

[Tannhauser]

To me, someone with character is someone who is congruent with his values. I.e. there is no discrepancy between what they say and what they do – even (or maybe especially) when no one is looking. People without it usually believe in their values only as a means to a facade, to make a good impression.

 

[WALKYRIA]

ok i see, and do you think that character can improve or get worse with time and experience?
Personnaly I've always been proud of my noble character... even arrogant about it because it made me somehow popular... it's funny now how it "seem" to not matter anymore to the benefit of financial success... sad isn't it?
But anyways, what are the - obvious and not so obvious- benefits of great character?

 

[Hadoblado]

*character

Please make more of an effort with spelling. It doesn't take much effort to get the title correct at the very least. We don't demand perfection, but it's disrespectful for you to expect us to read your thoughts when you put so little effort into presenting them.

I think Tannhauser summed it up well. Yes it improves with experience, and arguably, is the product of experience almost entirely. You work on your character your whole life. If ever you think you've reached the point where you believe you have it, this is almost a certain indication of where best to next start developing it.

No offense to you, but IMO you have not demonstrated character here on the forum. You're constantly obsessing over status. Going through the history of the threads you've created, I'm hard pressed to find a single one that isn't in some way to do with status or relative social position. Even now when you talk about 'great' character, like you've already aligned everyone in your head ordinally from having the best character to the worst, and wanting to be at the front of that line. You've just found some new hierarchy to place yourself at the top of, alongside Lincoln and Einstein.

I'm not saying you're completely without character, can't develop it, or that I have more of it than you. You were after a means of telling if someone has character, and I've just demonstrated mine to you.

 

[WALKYRIA]

Hey Hadoblado, thanks for your contribution; It seems that I'm beginning to get a reputation here and not the best... lol, good to know. BTW, what's up, you seem frustrated and annoyed, hadoblado hadabaday?

Anyway, It's obvious that I came here to develop( or to balance) my personnality not my character which is- and I'm really sorry to tell you this- outstanding... Also I don't believe one can succesfully show or demonstrate the nature of one character on a forum or on the net. Character(and also somehow perosnality) shows more(or even exclusively) in the real world and if you'r concerned about getting the respect of the fake internet people... Well more power to you.



ANyway, the goal of this post is about assesing someone's character, sure... because contrarily to you I believe that character doesn't change that much throughout lifetime... even with experience. That's a gut feeling that I have and would like to test out in the next years.
I know plenty of people with balanced and functional personnalities yet who lack character. And vice versa.

 

[Hadoblado]

hadoblado hadabaday

I found that genuinely funny. No, I'm doing fine. I find myself too distracted to properly sugarcoat what I'm saying. There's probably not a great way to say it though.

If you think you've got character that you haven't demonstrated, that's cool. I'm open to the possibility I just haven't picked up on it too.

The claim that character doesn't change over a lifetime seems ideological and baseless. You need to make mistakes to learn from them. Then again, maybe I'm thinking wishfully, wanting to some day be better than the mistakes I've made? Have you ever done something that you think would indicate weak character? Because if your character is stable you're still the person with the weak character who committed that action.

I know plenty of people with balanced and functional personnalities yet who lack character. And vice versa.

I'd argue that a balanced and functional personality is at odds with a strong character.

 

[Fukyo]

ok i see, and do you think that character can improve or get worse with time and experience?
Personnaly I've always been proud of my noble character... even arrogant about it because it made me somehow popular... it's funny now how it "seem" to not matter anymore to the benefit of financial success... sad isn't it?
But anyways, what are the - obvious and not so obvious- benefits of great character?

Amazing - somehow you have it all: looks, intellect, character but you're always failing at something in real life, and coming to fake internet people for advice.

 

[TBerg]

This is a podcast you might enjoy: http://www.onbeing.org/

I listen to it every week.

 

[EditorOne]

", It's obvious that I came here to develop( or to balance) my personnality not my character which is- and I'm really sorry to tell you this- outstanding... "

Are you channeling Donald Trump?


Meanwhile, back to one of the questions you raised about whether character has anything to do with personality, INTP or something like that or whatever: Yes, sometimes. The INTP set of traits includes something to the effect of "highly principled." That means if you believe a principle to be true, you can't be bought or beat (physically beaten, I mean) out of sticking to your principle. And that is the same way people often describe "character," simply integrity. Until it inconveniences them: Then they describe you as a pain in the ass. Adhering to principles means you don't go along to get along, because the idea is more important than fitting in. This, also, can cost you success, jobs, income, etc., especially until you learn that if you just shut the hell up you can do whatever you think is the right thing without rubbing every else's nose in their moral corruption.

I'm not deducting points for your bad spelling, but I will say the bad spelling distracted me from the message. Since I was a newspaper copy editor for a long time, that's pretty much my problem. But others will deduct points, with due allowance for the malaprops of auto-correct software.

 

[Hadoblado]

Funnily enough I consider Trump a man of principle. His adherence to his own duplicitous mantra is firm. He's willing to sacrifice his own perceived integrity in order to cater to popular though politically incorrect opinions, insighting PC backlash and making voters empathetic to his stated position feel attacked, unifying them under his banner. Probably similar to Bush now I think about it (though I'm pretty ignorant in this regard).

It's not that he's exactly what he claims to be, it's that he's exactly what he knows himself to be. I guess we then have to question whether character is being what you claim to be, or knowing what you are and not acting outside of that paradigm.

 

[EditorOne]

It is an interesting concept that adherence to duplicity could be a principled stand. We do, after all, kind of generally admire the Greeks for tricking the Trojans. It sort of falls apart, I think, if you consider we are, in Trump's case, the Trojans.

However, I simply meant that OP's comment that he's "outstanding" was a Trumpesque kind of callow boast. :-) It could have come right out of his mouth.

 

[Yellow]

Wow.

Now that I think about it, I think this is the first time I've come across a person claiming to have "outstanding" character.

Character, according to Merriam-Webster at least) "applies to the aggregate of moral qualities by which a person is judged apart from intelligence, competence, or special talents". So contrary to your conclusions that character is separate from personality, by definition, character is a key component (if not the summary) of one's personality. One's character is reflected in how they think, feel, and behave.

As Tannhuaser suggested, the first step to improving your character is to first inventory your values and then reconcile them with your actions. Now, you are very clearly a concrete thinker, so this activity may take some time and effort. It would help to speak with someone you trust to be insightful, who can help you identify what you believe is "right", and help you start to act accordingly.

When looking for character in others, it's best to look at their values as well. What does the other person hold as their moral code? Do they live by it? How do they handle adversity?

How would I define good character?

To me, a person with good character is unflinchingly honest. Now, I don't mean "always tell the truth". You can lie your ass off about unimportant things. But always be honest with your intentions, motives, and most importantly, with yourself. Have the integrity of spirit to question yourself, admit when you're wrong, and deal with the consequences.

You must be brave enough to face your problems, work hard to build your life, and clean up your own messes. Ask for help without manipulation, and give help without strings attached. Be a living example of your values. Don't make a single sacrifice in an area that matters, and don't rationalize behaviors that you know are wrong.

 

[The Gopher]

*character

Please make more of an effort with spelling. It doesn't take much effort to get the title correct at the very least. We don't demand perfection, but it's disrespectful for you to expect us to read your thoughts when you put so little effort into presenting them.

I'm not deducting points for your bad spelling, but I will say the bad spelling distracted me from the message. Since I was a newspaper copy editor for a long time, that's pretty much my problem. But others will deduct points, with due allowance for the malaprops of auto-correct software.

Surely the spelling was a bait. While he hasn't shown the best spelling in the past it's almost like exaggerating a weakness to pretend that weakness doesn't exist. This is where he seems to slip up.

Caracter( especially strenght of character) is often portraited in movies and is obviously different from personnality although it lost interest from the world...

In brackets lies the truth! *starts preaching*

 

[Tannhauser]

But anyways, what are the - obvious and not so obvious- benefits of great character?

Well, one benefit is that you don't expend any time and energy on trying to convince other people that you have character

 

[Pizzabeak]

Character is who you play, you develop it (him, her) by getting experience points, in general, in the areas of your choosing that you want to develop. Usually they suck at first but soon enough you'll get the hang of it and won't die as much.

 

[Jennywocky]

As others have noted, there's a huge difference between the claims "I have quite the character" and "I am quite the character."

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Einstein and Lincoln are terrible examples, because they are so famous and acclaimed the public opinion and various biographers altered their personas beyond healthy recognition. Now they stand as impossible ideals, perfect statues of their former selves.

In effect we know very little of who they were, except that they were successful. They could, and according to various sources they did, display abusive and negative traits, but it's all been hidden behind a post hoc rationalization of genius or success.

 

[QuickTwist]

People who have outstanding character don't find the need to expose it.

Lincoln suffered horribly to mental illness.

 

[WALKYRIA]

Lincoln suffered horribly to mental illness.

That's what makes him a great dude... He suffered from major depression but somehow found the strenght to do what he did and be loved by his peers. All that without antidepressors.
I think it's a remarkable feat.


Now why am I attacking this subject? Well because I believe that we live in a era that doesn't promote character( or strenght of it) enough. It just doesn't pay off enough.

People who have outstanding character don't find the need to expose it.

Sorry for my arrogance, I get that I should be more humble(and have better spelling) because it's socially more accepted. Sorry for my social ineptitude. I should perfectly know that the number of answers in my OP is proportional with my ability to be humble and likable. I failed once again, and I'm sorry.

The INTP set of traits includes something to the effect of "highly principled." That means if you believe a principle to be true, you can't be bought or beat (physically beaten, I mean) out of sticking to your principle. And that is the same way people often describe "character," simply integrity.

SO basically INTP have the best character right? right? Thank you, that's exacty what I wanted to hear and I feel much much better about myself now.
Thank you again for the collective ego stroke.

 

[QuickTwist]

Mother Teresa had excellent character.

 

[Haim]

Why do you think character is not important in today's world?
People that build have preserved good character get promoted in work, not to mention there are many opportunities that needs good character.Help build character?because the education is good manufacturing good(and one) character?

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

By getting out of your comfort zone.