Count the Cost

We live in a society where character flaws are frequently ignored - and too often they are even celebrated. Very few people want to face the personal problems that have crept into their lives. As a result, they keep building their businesses, careers, marriages and families on faulty foundations that eventually cause the collapse of everything they have worked all their lives to achieve.

Do you realize you can't indefinitely camouflage your problems and cover your wrongdoings? Things like money can hide shirked responsibility for only so long. Unless we become governed by an internal moral compass and set new standards, we can't expect prosperity to flow into our lives.

The truth is many people are looking for others of strong character with whom to associate. In fact, most people make good character a pre-requisite for access into their lives, especially when they are scouting for a spouse or looking for a good friend. But these same people would build better marriages and friendships if they would first examine the character of the person standing in front of the mirror! Your assessment of yourself will predict the health of your relationships much more accurately than dictating the kind of character you require from others.

Anyone who is searching for a person of excellent character ought to know that such a person is a rare treasure in this world. A faithful person is difficult to find. It is easier for people to go with the flow than to stand against the tide and do what is right. I have learned through the years that a person who wants to remain irresponsible usually leeches on to individuals who demonstrate responsible, good character. That way, he will always have someone to bear the load he himself should be carrying. Sad but true, good character is what others want you to possess so they don't have to.

Why is a person of character so rare? Because character is expensive. There is a price to pay for pursuing it. It doesn't just happen by chance; we have to passionately, diligently pursue it. The development of character comes with a price tag; but I can guarantee you one thing - it is cheaper than the consequences of living without it!

You know, it's our family members and close associates who know if we are really men and women of integrity. They know who we really are. If we have paid the price to pursue character, they, too, have had to endure the pain that built such character. Others may look at us and say, "I would sure like to have your life!" But how many of those same people would want to pay what we have had to pay to get where we are in our pursuit? I have discovered that life doesn't give us what we want or what we think we should have. Life gives us what we work for - what we deserve!

Nevertheless, the prize is always greater than the price. Nothing good can ever be built in our lives without good character. It affects every area of our personal existence - our decisions, our words, our actions, our attitudes, our goals and our relationships. If we do not fix our character before we attempt to work on anything else in life, we will only experience failure after failure. We may begin to build, but it will crumble. We may attempt to prosper, but it will be as if our purses have large holes in them. We may expend enormous amounts of energy, but all our efforts will come to nothing.

How can we avoid that oh-so-dangerous pitfall in life? First, we must realize that we may not always be rewarded for our strong traits, but we will most definitely be disqualified for the weak ones! As it has been commonly said, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. It might be a huge, 1,000-link chain with 999 super-strong links and only one weak link. The integrity of that chain will not depend on its 999 strong links; it will depend entirely on the single weak one.

Employ this simple strategy: Build character with no known weaknesses, point yourself in the right direction, then move slowly and deliberately, determining never to stop until you have reached your desired destination.

It must be our constant desire to focus on constructing the foundation of character. Everything in life rests squarely upon that bedrock. Every failure - whether in marriage, in one's personal habits, in the workplace, in business or in public policy - can be traced back to a failure in character almost 100 percent of the time. If we want to understand how to achieve lasting success, we must first realize that sustained favor and increase are directly linked to the kind of character we demonstrate as we walk through life.

Your success can only happen to the extent that you are willing to plant the fertile seeds of character. In other words, you cannot enjoy a lasting harvest unless your life is firmly rooted and entrenched in these ever-so-important traits. Lasting success is inseparably joined to the portrait painted by the brush of our character.

So many people suffer the heartache of having their lives and relationships uprooted and torn away from success and happiness. Many spend decades striving to reach their goals without ever seeing them come to pass. To believe in the truth of a principle is not enough. If character hasn't been rooted deeply within a man's heart - the place where dreams originate - he may stand for a little while, but eventually his hopes will be shattered on the rocks of time.

Character has the ability to firmly hold on to principle without letting go. It causes a man to relentlessly cling to integrity and truth. It provides the essential ingredients for accomplished goals and realized dreams. Many men and women live their lives by emotion rather than by principle. Emotions never provide a basis for good decision-making. In fact, it is, at times, dangerous to be driven by them. People who live by their emotions often want to know what good things are going to happen to them in the future. It is important to understand that no good can come of our future if we refuse to take care of the character flaws that live in the present. There will be no bright future for us if we refuse to confront the weaknesses in our character; for as soon as we arrive at tomorrow, it will become "today" - complete with the same problems that are keeping us in our present limitations.

I hope that today you determine to fix where you are right now, remembering to remain more interested in improving your own character than in judging the lack of it in others. This is the first step to promotion. You must challenge the standards by which you live today. Discover what is hindering your present progress; then, take the necessary steps to deal with those weaknesses. As you do, you can be confident the questions of tomorrow will take care of themselves.

Make it your aim to display character in a greater way, every day of your life.