Cautiousness is defined as “taking time to ensure the right decision is made or action is taken.” In our American culture’s view of what it takes to be successful, cautiousness is often undervalued in the same way that meekness or humility or deference are undervalued and seen as fear or weakness....
It’s no secret that we live in a world where it seems everything is instantaneous … instant gratification with instant connectivity, instant cash, instant payments, instant answers to our questions, instant fast food, and the list goes on. And I’m afraid we’ve lost some appreciation for...
Honesty may be the most popular of all character traits, at least in the United States. This is likely owing to the esteemed “fathers of our country.” It was the young George Washington who was long storied to have said, “Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut the tree.” While the truth of that story...
Dependability is defined as “Fulfilling commitments, even in the face of difficulty.” I suppose it could be defined, “in difficulty or in comfort.” Sometimes it’s actually harder to keep commitments when all is well. But let’s keep it simple. Let’s focus on simply...
The typical “handle your duties, do what is expected of you” as an employee, a son, a daughter, a wife, a husband, or a parent is an important aspect of responsibility, but there is another aspect of responsibility that I would like to focus on. I want to talk about what I believe to be our #1...
Persuasiveness has fallen into a bad light these days. Some may actually see it as a negative trait due to stereotypical images of pushy sales people and overpromising politicians. Persuasiveness can easily become contentiousness with a polarization of viewpoints, which we see all the time on...
Vince Lombardi related success to determination when he said, “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” Not their attainment of excellence, but their commitment to it, their...
Generosity encompasses how we manage all of our resources, to include time, talents, and other possessions, but this introduction is about the very first thing most of us think about when the word generosity comes up, money. We’ve all seen the commercials – “Two tickets to the ballgame, $28; two...
Wisdom is one of those character traits, like many, where the value is easy to see, but how to gain the trait, how to do it better, or even really excel at it, is much more difficult. It is easy to just say “be wise” or “be compassionate” or even simply “be kind,” but how to live it, how to do...
Flexibility can be defined simply as adjusting to change with a good attitude. Change is always challenging, even in the best of times, but we now have an opportunity for an attitude check, a progress report on our flexibility, if you will. A crisis has a way of revealing who you really are and...
The word respect is so prevalent in our American culture that its meaning can get watered down. Respect has been both popularized and trivialized, respectively, by pop icons Aretha Franklin and Rodney Dangerfield. Who could possibly forget the late, great singer belting out R-E-S-P-E-C-T or the...
Wisdom is defined as “making practical applications of truth in daily decisions,” or you may have heard it this way, “Knowledge is information; applying knowledge to live well is wisdom.” If you Google search “the wisest person who ever lived,” you will be directed to the 10th Century B.C....
