Yes, it’s that time of year! Do you make a New Year’s Resolution or not? Forbes contributor Lisa Bodell wrote in 2022 that the New Year’s Resolution is an exercise in futility because research shows that 80% of people give them up by February. And yet, the promise of imagining a better future self that you can live up to is compelling. What if there were a resolution you could commit to that would be the foundation for being the person you want to become and dramatically increase the probability of getting there? If you are gearing up for a particular venture, go for it, but there is something else you will want in your backpack. It is the very thing that most voyagers forget – the strength of character needed for your journey. Because it is so foundational, commit to character as your ultimate New Year’s Resolution.
Character Foundation For New Year’s Resolutions
Figuring out what you want to change is no easy task, and there are plenty of prescriptions for what you can stop, start, and continue. In 2024, an expert panel from Forbes provided 18 tips for achieving your New Year’s Resolution, including the need to be accountable and flexible. Notice the word “be.” How can you be-come the person who is accountable and flexible to take on whatever resolution you have designed? The foundation for who you want to become is rooted in your character. Developing your character is like a meta-habit, which underpins all habit development and, therefore, a solid roadmap and foundation for New Year’s Resolutions.
Your character is like the root system of a tree. Your New Year’s resolutions are like the branches of the tree. We can forget that the branches’ health depends on the strength of the root system. Heavy winds can uproot trees with weak root systems, breaking all the branches. This is why so many resolutions go unrealized. A little bit of time pressure or adversity uproots the tree, and the resolution is broken. However, strong character, like strong root systems, provides the foundation to weather the inevitable storms of life. It gives you the security and preparedness to face life’s challenges with resilience.
Like the tree with its hidden roots, character is hidden in plain sight. As my colleagues and I wrote in our article “Developing Leader Character: Finding a Way Forward” in the Academy of Management Learning and Education, although character is one of the most ancient areas of study with philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Confucius, and prevalent cross-culturally in Indigenous practices such as the Seven Grandfather Teachings, or Ubuntu philosophy, its foundational influence has been lost. With so much focus placed on tree limbs, whether competence in higher education and organizations or the “to-do” list of our everyday lives, there has been a lack of attention to the roots of character.
Character is often stress-tested in events where judgment and decision-making reveal the roots. In The Character Compass, a book I co-authored, we provide many of these examples, including Nelson Mandela’s strength of character underpinning the transformation of South Africa under his leadership, alongside many examples of weak or unbalanced character, whether in the Volkswagen emissions scandal, Wells Fargo, or Boeing. Weak or unbalanced character is less about morals and ethics and more about understanding how we can embrace the art and science of character development to cultivate a healthy root system of character to foster sustained excellence and well-being.
Although character, like the roots of a tree, is not often examined, it is telling that character is frequently exposed in commencement speeches and obituaries, which tend to define a life well-lived. Committing to character development can guide your life choices about what to focus on and enable you to maintain those choices over your life.
Taking The First Step To Commit To Character
Let me make this personal. While I have had the good fortune of living a life with wonderful family, friends, and mentors who have shaped my root system of character, it wasn’t until I began a deep exploration of the art and science of character 15 years ago that I could intentionally and intelligently strengthen those roots. Most of us have good, if not great, intentions, but it is easy to over-weight on some dimensions of character and under-weight others, partly by what gets reinforced in our lives, partly because of our nature, and mostly because we may not know better.
The first step in the character journey is simply learning what character is and how it can be developed – what my colleagues and I describe as “going to the character gym.” You can think of the root system of the tree as the meta habit of character that will guide all your other habits and aspirations—for example, learning about what it means to be-come more accountable, flexible, open-minded, and purposeful, to name just a few of the muscles of character. And learn how you can become more tenacious and decisive without becoming imbalanced and operating in the excess vice states of being stubborn or impulsive.
My practice of committing to character has evolved from learning about the 11 dimensions (Transcendence, Drive, Collaboration, Humanity, Humility, Integrity, Temperance, Justice, Accountability, Courage, and Judgment), their 62 supporting behaviors, and how they can operate in deficient and excess states, to a daily practice that begins with my morning coffee where I focus on one behavior for the week and work through a simple exercise each day that brings character to the forefront of my day. Although I use a mobile app that I co-developed to prompt me each morning with an exercise and, at the end of the day, with a reflection, the same can be done through cultivating your own exercises and reflections around each of the behaviors. For example, this week, I am focusing on the behavior of becoming more situationally aware as part of the dimension of Judgment, and my exercise for the day is “Sharpen your awareness by paying attention to details often gone unnoticed.” The exercise exposes part of the unexamined root system and helps me be more aware and intentional about what I am paying attention to and why. It is these micro-moments of being that are the ingredients for change. As James Clear wrote in his book Atomic Habits – “Every action you take is a vote for the person you want to become.”
Most of us have something that we believe will improve our lives, whether it is something we want to stop or something we want to start. No matter the aim, it needs nourishment from the strong room system of character. My New Year’s Resolution is to strengthen my commitment to character, knowing that it is the one thing I can do to cultivate healthy relationships and foster the moment-to-moment quality of being that enables me to see possibilities differently and act on them in ways that foster human flourishing. Committing to character is the first step and the guidepost on “who I want to become while I am busy doing.” Character development is a life-long journey, not a destination, and a resolution worthy of commitment.