5 Ways To Remove Character Defects

Are you perfect? Me either. Have any flaws? Welcome to Earth. Everyone on this planet has character defects, also known as shortcomings that compromise their goals, dreams, and relationships.

Identifying defects in our thoughts and behavior isn’t always easy because of the tendency to blame others or rationalize our actions.

Common Character Defects

FheRehab.com offers this helpful explanation on character defects: “The term character defect refers to any challenge in personal character that may affect your way of life and interactions with others in a less than ideal manner.”

Some common character defects include intolerance, laziness, pride, dishonesty, cowardice, anger, jealousy, and greed.

Character defects keep us from unlocking our best life. They create issues in our relationships, career, and personal growth. They are stumbling blocks that keep tripping us up.

5 Steps To Overcome Character Defects…

Decide to change your life

Do you recognize any character flaws you’d like to overcome or remove?

If so, that’s great because it means you’ve acknowledged a shortcoming within yourself that you want to change, and are ready to take action. You’re not avoiding the issue or living in denial.

Character defects have to do with how you think. Changing your life starts in your mind because it’s the command center of your life.

Know your why

From your list of shortcomings, what’s one you’d like to remove from your life? Why do you want to overcome it?

How is this shortcoming affecting your life and relationships? How would your life be better without it? What will you gain by removing it?

Identifying your why gives you the motivation to overcome it and the emotional power to take steps to find solutions.

Small Steps

Regarding the shortcoming you chose to work on, what’s its opposite? For example, what are the opposites of anger, or jealousy, or laziness?

Think about it, by identifying a shortcoming you want to remove you’re saying you want less of that shortcoming in your life and more of whatever its opposite is. Make sense?

After you’ve acknowledged a character defect, the process of overcoming it starts with replacing the toxic thought or behavior with positive, supportive action.

Instead of engaging in the negative behavior, what’s one small alternative action you can take to replace it? What can you choose to focus on instead of dwelling on the thing that’s troubling you? Can you do something active? Or work on a goal?

For example, instead of giving a coworker the silent treatment because you’re jealous they got a promotion, choose to identify one of their positive traits and congratulate them on their promotion and hard work.

Start replacing the “flawed” behavior with the “flawless” behavior. “Flawless might not be the best choice of words, but you get the point.

Distracting yourself from the character defect by focusing on something productive or beneficial and replacing the “flawed” defect with a “flawless” behavior is a two-step process for rewiring the brain to change how you think, feel, and what you focus on.

Stay the course

Changing your life takes time. So stay the course. And remember to take small steps because this makes it easier to be consistent. You’ll be less tempted to quit too.

And remember, even when you overcome a particular character defect, you’ll find another area in your life you wish to improve. Growth is a lifelong process.

Focus on progress. Enjoy the process of “becoming.” As it’s been said many times before, it’s not the goal that’s important; it’s who we become during the process of achieving the goal that’s important.

Flourish

To keep going forward, let go of the past. Let go of any stories that no longer serve the new you you’ve chosen to become.

Let go of bitterness, grudges, hatred, jealousy – let go of anything that’s been making you unhappy. Let them go even if you’re justified in having them because they’re getting in the way of you unlocking your best life.

You can be right, or you can be happy. The choice is yours.

What kind of person do you want to be? What do you want for your life? What do you want more of? And what would your life look if you had more of it? This is called vision.

Have a vision for your life and be your own best role model.

You have the freedom and power to forge the kind of life you’ve dreamed of having. So start writing your own story by removing any character defects that are keeping you from unlocking your best life.

Image by eko pramono from Pixabay