What do I value? What is the quality of my character?
Some of us were likely taught that hardships are good for us because "they build character," but what does that mean? By building character, do we harden ourselves to the world, creating a buffer to weather future storms? —or do we develop skills that will allow us to more easily adapt to new and uncomfortable situations? —or do we come to know ourselves better and so establish a reliable means by which to determine what situations to enter or avoid? —and so on. Aside from 'hardening ourselves,' perhaps, it could be all of the above and more. In each case, our character, or dispositional nature, determines how we're predisposed to respond to the situations we find ourselves in, and that in turn determines how we experience those situations. Insofar as there are better and worse ways to respond to situations and, consequently, better and worse experiential outcomes, we can't help but care about our character, whether or not we realize it consciously.
Should we make an effort to consciously reflect upon our character, it's good to be honest with ourselves. We'll become consciously acquainted with the quality of our character when we honestly answer questions like, What have I valued habitually? What consistently moves me? What has been motivating me? In a word, Who have I been? The answers should be simple reports. We must be careful not to answer these questions by giving some version of I tell myself I'm x (but I'm not quite) or I could be x if only y (which isn't the case). Those answers belong more properly to the first three questions of the A-phase dealing with what we consider valuable (or worth valuing going forward, into the future). The last three questions of the A-phase (R, X, and V) are linked with the past and ask us to face facts as they stand. Here we own up to who we have been heretofore—warts and all—since this is the necessary material with which we have to work when fashioning ourselves anew.
