Your Character Tells Your Story When You’re Not Around

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When you are not there to defend yourself, when there are conversations behind your back, when you are no longer on this earth—what will people say about you?

Who will you be when you aren’t there to explain your purpose? When there is no one to define you? When you can’t be there to speak your truth, give your two-minute identity speech? Who are you when people are talking without you? When there are conversations in another room?

What legacy will you leave, and are you already leaving?

Who you are is being built right now, right this second. People are absorbing what you share, reading and listening and learning your identity with every decision you make, and story you tell. When you value your time with someone, they are taking note. When you do something out of the kindness of your heart, when you are patient, when you help without having to be asked and without complaint—the world sees that.

You are building your character in every moment.

You are showing yourself in the way you talk to people, in the conversations where you bite your tongue or speak with grace rather than anger, in the way you listen without interruption, in how you share your story without stepping on, or pushing anyone else down. You are revealing your morals in the words you say, and what those words themselves say about what you think and believe.

Who you are is being defined by the way you love, let people in, forgive, learn, grow. You are not expected to be perfect, you can and will make mistakes, but what you do in the aftermath shows who you are. The way you continue, the way you fight, and not give up—that becomes your definition.

The way you speak to people less fortunate, the blessings you return to the world, the sacrifice, passion, and attention you give to the things around you, the words of encouragement you share—that is your legacy.

And that will define you when you are not around.

People will remember what you told them, how you valued their time, how you opened, how you made them feel.

Your character will speak for you when you’re not there to speak for yourself—what will it say?