“In the end, it is the person you become, not the things you achieve, that is most important” — Les Brown
It is a normal human desire to be concerned about how we look on the outside. And there is nothing wrong with taking care of your outward appearance. As leaders, we should always carry ourselves with excellence. What can get us in trouble is worrying more about how we look on the outside than about who we really are on the inside. Our reputation comes from what others believe about our outside. Our character represents who we are on the inside. And the good news is that if you focus on being better on the inside than the outside, over time you will also become better on the outside.
What we believe really matters. We reap what we sow. What we do or neglect to do in the privacy of our daily lives impacts who we are. If you neglect your heart, mind, and soul, it changes who you are on the outside as well as the inside.
If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them. In other words, before you can do, you must be. I have many many times seen people who seemed to be doing all the right things on the outside, yet they were not experiencing success.
The right motions outwardly with wrong motives inwardly will not bring lasting progress. Right outward talking with wrong inward thinking will not bring lasting success. Expressions of care on the outside with a heart of hatred or contempt on the inside will not bring lasting peace. Continuous growth and lasting success are the result of aligning the inside and the outside of our lives. And getting the inside right must come first — with solid character traits that provide the foundation for growth!
I love how Jim Rohn says this – “We often cannot determine what happens to us, but we can always determine what happens within us”.
Success is not just about having money in your pocket. Financial success without a strong character foundation can lead not to success but to ruin. Sadly, just look at the number of famous actors, sports players, and singers who have crashed and burned after what looks like on the outside that they have “made it”. This is a prime example of being focused on the externals of life instead of building internally to give themselves a strong foundation when fame and fortune came. Theirs is a fate we need to work hard to avoid by focusing on improving on the inside more than the outside.
Character involves many important traits like integrity, perseverance, confidence, and wisdom. Unlike your fingerprints that you were born with and can’t change, character is something that you create within yourself and must take responsibility for changing. When we fail to make the right character choices within us, we give away ownership of ourselves. We belong to others and to whatever it is that gains control of us. And that puts us in a very bad place.
Keep your character in check in every single thing you do. Unlike what you see everyday when you look in the mirror, it is easy for our internal self to fall victim to a “slow fade” that we don’t even realize we are going down that path of destruction!