“Character 
is what you do 
when no one 
is looking.” 
Coach John Wooden

I recently heard about an activity in which participants of a group discussion were invited to write a list of people they admired. These people could be family members, friends, coworkers, celebrities, professional athletes, or anyone else who inspired them. The list was to be written on the left half of a sheet of paper which had been folded vertically.

Once their list was complete, participants were told to write the character traits they admired in each person they listed. These were to be written on the right-hand side of their paper. 

I’m not exactly sure what happened next, but I got the idea that participants were challenged to see each of the character traits listed… in themselves.

It’s so easy to overlook our own giftedness, our own goodness, and our own strengths of character. Self-criticism seems to be a trait of being human. We can see the giftedness in others, but we honestly believe that if people really knew us the way we know ourselves, they would be disappointed in who we truly are. We tend to be our own harshest critic.

I invite and challenge you to do this exercise for yourself. Who do you admire? Write down their names. What is about them that causes you to admire them? Write down their traits. Then consider how those traits just might apply to you, too.

It would be nice if we could see ourselves through the lens of other people. Others, it seems, are better able to see and appreciate the giftedness and goodness in us.