Character: It's what you do when no one's looking!

What is your character? Is it your disposition, if that’s all it is I’m good, I wake up happy always, I try to look to the brighter side of things and I smile and laugh randomly at the wackiness of our world and the people in it? I’m lucky to have been born this way for sure, I was born happy. Happy is a personality trait different from feeling happiness. But being happy isn’t all there is to it, my character needs to be satisfied and content. I'm happiest when I am working towards a goal or accomplishment. Contentment is happiness. What is satisfaction, a goal, an end result a completed job, when are we content enough, after how many accomplishments, projects or goals? Is it stuff I need to be satisfied, when is enough, can less not be more? When are we complete and satisfied? When we complete school, get that great job, get married, move into a dream home, have children or when we retire, when are we truly happy and satisfied with ourselves, is it again only after the completed current task that our characters demands and we want to build so other see us as content? Why do we always think wishing our lives to fast forward to when we finish this or that we will be happy, after each accomplishment we have strived to work hard to complete, that it then will bring happiness and our character will be complete?
Do you behave one way privately and another publicly with your friends, associates etc? Your private life is supposed to be your own and nobody else’s business, correct? If you have both doesn’t that then mean you have two lives, a private one and then a public one, but they are two very different characteristics of personality? If we split our personalities into two or more characters it goes against the meaning of character which is integrity.
Integrity is whole, meaning one, so if we have more than one personality (private and public) we have a broken character with no integrity. If you have integrity, it is an unbroken condition and only ONE whole character which would be integrity.
If you think you can run your life with a break in one part without it ever affecting the other parts I don’t believe it works that way, sooner rather than later it will implode or spill into the your entire life.
Living your life in private as you do in public prevents you losing integrity or vise versa. A good way to keep integrity in your life is to pay attention to the little things you do, in private or public. Don’t live your life to please others. Live your life to please God and yourself. It’s one thing to know and understand what’s right it’s another to do it. Be honest with yourself, truly honest inside, be honest with others and be honest when speaking to God daily. Character takes time to develop, you determine your true character while others determine your reputation. Let your words always be the truth to whomever they are spoken, keep your promises, honour commitments and meet deadlines. Listen to God’s promises and always stand behind yours.
Everyone seems to long for happiness. It seems to be the peace of mind that goes along with contentment. We keep moving ahead with our lives, time never stops, it seems to go faster, there is never enough time, we are busy, adrenaline is always rushing constantly to the next thought or idea, caught up in a vicious cycle of the fast paced world, over committing ourselves, overspending and over working. Believing if we complete all these things we are sure to be or find happiness or peace of mind?? Constantly, striving, consuming and accumulating does not bring happiness. It just brings anxiety, worry, unhappiness, stress and usually we become very ineffective actually in all areas.
Balance is the key to it all, can you slow down and look at some true qualities of what has pleased you so far in your life and made you happy today, presently, now? Are you enjoying yourself and content today with your success? Its a beautiful day today, presently, with what we have and have been given.
When you are in discontentment mode, not happy or in a state of want ... it doesn’t mean you are lazy, this affects us all, everyone is equal here, the rich and poor are the same species, we react the same ... we both want more stuff.
Being content doesn’t mean you are deprived or disadvantaged of material ... there is power in happiness because you are content with what you have today, you are free basically and happy, free from the stress of discontentment of it never being enough.
It is great to be content and still ambitious. If you base your desires and contentment towards the commandments while you serve God and build your character. If you are ambitious and help others, improve yourself to have an effect on the world, then when you fulfill your ambitions it brings you happiness and contentment, all while building character.