Latest / Motivational Podcast / AN UNSHAKABLE CHARACTER – Build a Foundation That Can’t Be Broken

Transcript

AN UNSHAKABLE CHARACTER – Build a Foundation That Can’t Be Broken · Motivational Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I think one of the sharpest distinctions between people is
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: between the small percent who look words up in the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: dictionary and the overwhelming majority that don't. I find it
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: especially helpful when I discover something about the origins of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: words in ancient or foreign languages. I looked up the
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: word character in the dictionary, I learned the origin of
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the word, and then I just sat there for a
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: minute and realized that in this case, the origin of
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the word just about says it all. So I'm going
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to tell you where the word character comes from, and
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I hope it has as big an effect on you
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: as it.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Did on me.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Character comes from a Greek word meaning chisel or the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: mark left by a chisel. I'm going to repeat that
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: because I think it's very important. Character is derived from
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the Greek word for chisel, And of course, a chisel
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: is a sharp steel tool used for making a sculpture
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: out of a hard or difficult material like granite or marble,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and a chisel is also used for stripping waste material
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: from an option, stripping away stuff that might get in
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the way in order to get down to the essential thing,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the thing that really matters. And I hope you'll remember
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: that you've got to chisel your character out of the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: raw material of yourself, just like a sculptor has to
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: create a statue. The raw material is always there. Everything
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: that happens to you, good or bad, is an opportunity
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: for building your character.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Character doesn't refer to other people.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: It doesn't refer to having power over other people, or
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: getting other people to follow you, or gaining favor with
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: other people. Character is something that you have and that
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: you are. Character is all about you. Character is the
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: person you are after you've chiseled and chiseled and have
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: gotten past all the unnecessary material to what's underneath. Character
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: is what's left after charisma is gone. The essential point
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: is this, I don't think character is something that just
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: happens by itself. A conscious process of design is at work.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Character is the result of hundreds and hundreds of choices
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you may make that gradually turn who you are at
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: any given moment into who you want to be. If
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: that decision making process is not present, you'll still be somebody.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: You'll still be alive, but may have a personality rather
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: than a character. Character isn't something you were born with
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and can't change, like your fingerprints, it's something you weren't
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: born with and that you must take responsibility for making.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: You may not be able to cross the rocky mountains
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: in a covered wagon, but you can still create a
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: better life for yourself by crossing the mountains of your soul,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: and that may be even a greater challenge. I don't
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: think adversity by itself builds character, and I certainly don't
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: think that success erodes it.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: You can build character by how you respond to.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: What happens in your life, whether it's winning every game
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: or losing every game, or getting rich or dealing with
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: hard times. You build character out of certain qualities that
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: you must create and diligently nurture within yourself, just like
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: you would plant and water a seed or gather wood
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: and build a campfire. You've got to look for those
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: things in your heart and in your gut. You've got
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: to chisel away in order to find them, just like
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: chiseling away rock in order to create the sculpture that
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: has previously existed only in your imagination. But the really
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: amazing thing about character is that if you're sincerely committed
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: to making yourself into the person you want to be,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you'll not only create those qualities, you'll strengthen them and
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: recreate them in abundance even as you're drawing on them
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: every day of your life. Character sustains itself and nurtures
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: itself even as it's being put to work and tested
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and challenged. Since ancient times, philosophers have seen it as
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the basis of all real achievement.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: This is the quality of courage.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I can't put it any better than the Greek philosopher
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Aristotle did more than two thousand years ago. A truly
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: courageous person is not someone who never feels fear, but
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: who fears the right thing at the right time, in
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the right way. For a mature human being, there has
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: got to be some higher value or higher truth.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Than just staying on in life.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Part of wisdom is knowing what you lack and looking
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: for it and asking for it. Another part of wisdom
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: is knowing, at the same time as you ask, that
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: there are no final answers.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: There are always more questions.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Remember, you're never really helpless, and the sense that you
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: are helpless, or that you might be if certain things
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: were to happen, is something we really ought to be
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: afraid of and that we should refuse to accept you're
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: never just a victim of circumstances. No matter what happens,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: You're never without options that can get you back on track.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: It takes courage to recognize that because it means accepting
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: responsibility for your own future.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Let me emphasize that underlying most.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Fears the fear of helplessness, of being victimized or being
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: blown around by the winds of fate like a leaf
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: is blown off a tree. But is that really a
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: legitimate way of looking at things? To me, it sounds
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: like being afraid of the dark, in which case the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: best thing to do is to get yourself up out
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: of bed and switch on the light. It's only in
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the past fifty years or so people have come to
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: expect a life without real tough times and real difficulties.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: But adversity isn't something to fear. It's something to expect,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: something to prepare for, and something to overcome. The truly
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: courageous person is not immune to fear, but it plays
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: a different role in his or her life than it
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: does for other people. If you're a courageous person, your
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: fears aren't about what someone might do to you or
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: something that might happen to you. Your fears are about
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: not living up to your ideals, about reacting instead of acting,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: about not taking advantage of the opportunities that are always
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: within reach. A truly courageous person is not afraid of
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: what might or might not happen next week or next year.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: He fears not making the most of every moment today.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: A truly courageous person fears the impulse to dominate other people.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: She leads by helping others to be their best. In
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: ancient Greece, the philosopher Demasenes went searching for an honest man,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: and he never found one. Honesty and in integrity are
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: rather rare. Despite the fact that these are some of
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the clearest, most easily recognized elements of strong character in
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the real world, they are also some of the most
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: difficult to find. It seems it's always been that way.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: There was a time when telling a lie was very
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: serious business. It was also very serious if you accuse
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: someone of lying. For hundreds of years in the past,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: calling someone a liar was the most common way to
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: provoke a duel, at first with swords, later with pistols.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Dishonesty was treated like a personal insult that demanded immediate redress.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: But there's no such risk today, is there. Some people
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: lie all the time without thinking about it.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Most people know when.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: They're being lied to, which they may find irritating, but
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: they just accept it. Maybe they decide to become liars themselves.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: It's a price they're willing to pay in order to
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: have a exactly what they want right now. There are
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: many situations where it's painful to tell the truth. It's
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: more like a boomerang that's going to come around and
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: hit you in the back of the head someday. Let
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: me give you some good advice about avoiding a bankrupt character.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Pay your ethical debts, keep your integrity in the black.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Face ugly realities with the truth as soon as they appear.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: When you feel that temptation to hedge, resist it immediately.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Don't treat it casually.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Treat it like a greasefire in the kitchen that you've
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: got to put out before it burns your house down
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: or fills the whole place up with so much smoke
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: that you can't see where you're going anymore. Because that's
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: exactly what will happen when your ethical capital runs out.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: You just won't be able to see where you're going.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Any addictive behavior offers a simple, short term escape from
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: a problem, but that escape becomes more and more complicated
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: as time goes on. Shakespeare had it right all along.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: What a tangled web we weave when at first we
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: practice to deceive, lying with an ulterior motive, lying for
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: personal gain. That kind of lying is definitely something to
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: be avoided. It's not the kind of behavior that defines
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: strong character. Real lying is like theft. It's creating an illusion.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Usually the people who are being deceived awaken from the
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: illusions that have been foisted upon them. But even if
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: this never happens, the criminal, and I don't think that's
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: too strong a word, has to buy into the illusion
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: so deeply himself that his own sense of reality is eroded.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: By trying to loosen other people's grasp of the truth,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: you end up losing your own.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: It all comes from fear.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Somebody is afraid the truth about themselves isn't good enough,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: so they depart from the truth. It's really cowardice. Courage
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: is fearing the right thing at the right time and
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: in the right way. Fear the temptation to misrepresent who
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: you are or what you've done, or intend to do.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Trust who you really are, trust your ability to earn
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the respect of others.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Pay whatever price the truth costs.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Pay that bill immediately, because in the long run, it's
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: a real bargain. Honesty and integrity are absolutely essential to survive.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: This is an extremely important element of strong character. Goals
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: are major to a genuinely success oriented person. Without them,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you're just playing around. Despite everything that's been written about
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: the importance of goal setting, very few people actually put
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: it into practice. Challenge creates strong character, and goals represent
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: challenge in its most positive form. What do I want
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: to do? What do I want to be? What do
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I want to see? What do I want to have?
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Where do I want to go? Above all, persevere goal
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: setting is a very important first step, but goal achievement
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: is a continuous, lifelong process. That's what makes it so challenging.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Perseverance is about as important a goal achievement as gasoline
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: is to driving a car. Sure, there will be times
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: when you feel like you're spinning your wheels, but you'll
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: always get out of the ret with genuine perseverance. Without it,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: you won't even be able to start your engine. It's ironic,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: isn't it. Wisdom is not a thing you can buy,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: or of course you can take in school, or a
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: degree you can earn. Wisdom is not really something you
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: can get from another person. Yet you can gain some
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: wisdom from everyone you meet. Wisdom is something a wise
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: man always feels he needs more of. Yet the true
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: sources of wisdom lie nowhere but within ourselves.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: You're never just a victim of circumstances.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: It takes courage to recognize that, because it means accepting
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: responsibility for your own future. If you're a courageous person,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: your fears aren't about what someone might do to you
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: or something that might happen to you. Your fears are
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: about not living up to your eyes ideas, about reacting
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: instead of acting, about not taking advantage of the opportunities
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: that are always within reach.