Character Is Fate: 10 Habits That Will Help You To Live And Be Better

There aren’t too many of us who are satisfied with the person we currently are.

That is, we know we could be better. We know we should be better.

And by better, we don’t mean at our jobs, at lifting weights, or looking better, or having more money.

We know we could be better people–that is to say, kinder, more generous, more patient, more thoughtful, more reliable.

But how many of us actually do anything about this? How many of us are as focused on being good?

“A better wrestler?” Marcus Aurelius asked himself, rhetorically, referring to the time he spent improving at one of his hobbies. “But not a better citizen, a better person, a better resource in tight places, a better forgiver of faults?”

What is your most important job? he emphasizes. “To be a good person.”

When the Stoics talked about the virtue of justice, they weren’t talking about a legal system of rules and codes. They were talking about what Marcus was talking about — actively working to be a better citizen, a better person, a better resource, a better forgiver of faults.

That’s what I spent a lot of time thinking about as I wrote my newest book, Right Thing, Right Now (…which you can…