My new online exercise for character development

I’m excited to share my new online exercise for character development, called Your Portrait of the Good. The point of this free exercise is to encourage the practice of virtues. This ancient spiritual practice develops your character and helps make you a better person. The exercise, which takes between 7 and 14 minutes, asks you to reflect on the people and things that matter most. This process helps clarify your highest ideals. Your answers create a printable personalized chart which serves as a practice tool for cultivating happiness and fulfillment.

This personalized chart—your Portrait of the Good—is sent to your email address as a pdf file. Examples of two completed Portraits of the Good are shown below.

This exercise is adapted from my forthcoming book: Developmental Politics—How America Can Grow Into a Better Version of Itself.  It builds on time-tested teachings about the spiritual practice of virtues—teachings that are now experiencing a revival within secular positive psychology and academic moral philosophy. Virtues are character strengths, or commitments to personal excellence, whose practice results in personal growth. The practice of virtues involves cultivating the “habits of the heart” that help you do the right thing.

Thanks for checking out this exercise, which is now live on the Institute for Cultural Evolution’s website: culturalevolution.org.