Vocabulary of Character

I'm posting old Members' Library Home Page articles here to serve as an archive. This one was first published April 3, 2009, at http://members.characterfirst.com.

Luke Kallberg

I recently talked with a man who has experience running an orphanage in a particular African nation. He surprised me with the comment that certain concepts of what we would call ethical behavior appear to be completely absent from that culture. Theft, disrepair, and lying were common, accepted practices–but that wasn’t the most striking part. Surprisingly, people do harbor distrust and contempt for those they see as liars and thieves, but there is no connection to the idea that their behavior was undesirable. Even though recognized as harmful and untrustworthy, the behavior was not seen as good or bad, but simply reality. The concept of integrity as a good goal is simply not there.

We all live like this to some extent. When we don’t have a readily available concept to define a certain behavior to ourselves, there’s not much chance that we will behave that way. We are purposeful beings, and when our purpose is unclear, we will pick a new one of our own and go that direction.

If character training were boiled down to telling people, “be good,” we would soon see everyone reverting to their own personal motivations and concepts of what counts as “being good.” Character First! tries to provide some articulate concepts – some vocabulary – that people and organizations can use to think and talk clearly about what they mean when they say “be good.” As we become more familiar with these concepts, we will have more durable purposes for ethical behavior.

• Many of the Character Qualities have a definition that reveals a motivation or deeper reason for it. Can you recognize how these apply to your life?
• A major purpose of Character Recognitions is to introduce the vocabulary of character into daily life so that these concepts can become more solid.
• What are the buzzwords in your family or organization? These words and concepts probably control people’s motivations more that you realize.

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Luke Kallberg manages website content for the Character Training Institute.