Our dual quest in life is to 1) obtain a good character and 2) obtain the tools to maintain it in all circumstances life provides. Life will constantly barrage you with circumstances that make it challenging to do both. Can you maintain your character in spite of life?
There are plenty of illusions in life that will tempt you to act contrary to good character. When you find yourself confronted with a situation that causes you to deviate from good character, it ought to trigger you to search for tools to overcome that situation.
There are numerous circumstances that will compete with your desire to maintain a good character. These include the constant urge toward pleasure, the necessity of obtaining food and shelter, and the psychological challenges associated with letting go of previously held beliefs that you now know are inferior.
Are you totally honest with yourself and others? Life will provide numerous situations where hiding who you really are may seem like the best path. Maybe you have traits others do not like. Maybe you have traits that you do not like. It is best to honestly confront them. Life will provide numerous situations to say, feel, or act in a way that is out of alignment with your sincere understanding of reality in order to feel better than you would if you were honest. Don’t succumb to that temptation.
Are you sincerely interested in self-improvement? Your pride will tempt you again and again to believe that what you currently know is all there is to know. There are massively better outcomes available, and anything and anyone that helps you take a step in that direction is a gift to be sought and treasured. Your humility will be tested through new truth offered to you through correction that will crush your illusory self-image, test your limits, come through unlikely sources, and address unexpected topics. Love correction in any form it comes.
Are you consummately interested in the benefit of others? Life will continually assault you with opportunities to place the welfare of another person ahead of your own. Who you really are is not about who you feel you are, but about how you behave toward others and why you behave that way.
If you possess total honesty, relentless drive towards self-improvement, and enduring charity for others, you are by all means one of the rarest people on this planet.