practical inquiry regarding meaning » value » character / valued by me / my 'is'
Virtue is the goal here. Virtue means excellence of character. Character means one's settled disposition to respond to situations. Excellence of character is the settled disposition to respond appropriately to situations as determined by the particular situation and our overall A-phase goal to achieve flow. Virtue promotes flow as it's a settled disposition to exercise good judgment, which is another way of saying that it's a settled disposition to respond to the situations as they are (and not as we might otherwise misjudge them to be), with the goal of flow in sight, harmonize with the world (exercising good judgment with respect to how we respond to the situation).
Virtues operate at different levels. A skilled craftsman will possess virtue with respect to his craft that others with who practice different crafts don't possess. To specialize in a field is to gain virtue in the fine-grained details of that field. None of us will ever be virtuous at this level in all areas. That's fine, though, since most of us will not encounter the situations where such skill is called for. Yet other virtues apply generally across many situations, and it's these general virtues that would serve us best to cultivate (in addition to our particular specialization, that is). These are virtues like integrity, honesty, gratitude, courage, wisdom, kindness, and so on. Cultivating these will help us exercise good judgment in life overall.
The biggest impact on the quality of our character is made in our formative years as children. Once we achieve maturity, changes to our character do not come easily. They require consistent deliberate effort. This means we must show great resolve to, for example, be honest in all situations, even when being honest is not to our personal advantage —or, we must show great determination in being kind even when we are not treated in like manner —or, we must demonstrate great diligence in witholding judgment in the absense of sufficient reason or evidence to make a judgment; we must be prepared to say I don't know —and so on.
