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Character Day | Happy Living“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”
(Jimi Hendrix)

Character Day is a free event and global initiative whereby groups of people around the world watch films on the science of character development from different perspectives, dive into free printed discussion materials, and join an online global conversation around the importance of developing character strengths such as wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence – all rooted in evidence-based research.[1]

Character Day is becoming a big deal. Just look at these highlights from last year!

  • 93,000 unique events
  • 125 countries
  • All 50 states
  • A Global LiveCast Q&A
  • One theme: Developing Character Strengths

At Happy Living, we believe every day is Character Day. And in the social media world we live in, that belief can be conveyed as a hash tag, of course: #EDICD. Sounds like edict, don’t you think?

An edict is an official order or proclamation issued by a person in authority. One definition I read said, “If your mom orders you to clean your room, that’s an order. If the king asks you to do it, that’s an edict — an official order from some higher up.”

Of course, we have no authority over others, but we proclaim this edict for ourselves: Every Day Is Character Day. And that’s why we write (a lot)…to inspire others to believe in this edict too.

Long before I ever heard of Character Day, we at Happy Living were writing about the character strengths of wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence. In fact, a search for “wisdom” on our website returned thirty-three different posts! Another search for “perspective,” a strength listed as a sub-category of wisdom, returned thirty-eight.

In honor of our edict of #EDICD, here are a few excerpts from my favorite Happy Living posts about Wisdom.

[Tweet “Every Day Is Character Day. And that’s why we write (a lot)…to inspire others”]

Learning Wisdom

Unlearning Life to Discover Who I am and What I Want

As I wrote in Undercover Tao and the Philosophies of Life, the Tao Te Ching (Tao for short, pronounced: “Dow”) is a spiritual text of 81 verses that is attributed to Lao Tzu, a philosopher of ancient China. Tao means literally “the path” or “the way.”[2] Studying the Tao has given me a framework for figuring out who I am and what I want during this life. It helps me reflect and think deeply. It helps me pay attention to WHAT I am attracted to, and then to ask WHY. The Tao is helping me discover my path. It’s showing me how I can become everything I am meant to be.

Developing Wisdom

My Philosophy on Why We’re Here

Every experience in my life, both the good and the bad, changes me in some way. Every adventure I survive. Every book I read. Every relationship I develop. Every country I explore. Every new hobby I learn. Every time I start a new job, or get fired from one, or move to a new city, or marry, or divorce, or have children. Each of these things change who I am and add to the network of my total knowledge.

Sharing Wisdom

Dropping Tidbits of Knowledge on the World

I am an avid, lifelong reader. In the old days, I would write on, highlight, page-fold, and otherwise leave my mark on the books I read. Now I do all that digitally on my Kindle reader. And that lets me easily share the most meaningful parts of the books I read directly with you. I have created the tagline Ideas for #HappyLiving for the shared notes that I post on Twitter. If you’d like read the wisdom I am sharing from my favorite authors, just follow me: @MattGersper.

The Wisdom of Happy Living

The Surprisingly Simple Happiness Formula

I have found that the more I pay attention to what inspires me, the more I discover my passions in life. And the more time I spend on the passions of my life, the happier I am. Do you know people who say, “I love what I do”? Those people understand the happiness formula: Inspiration plus passion equals happiness.


Leading up to Character Day 2017, which is scheduled for September 13, I’ll be exploring our library and highlighting my favorite posts on the other character strengths too. Up next: Courage.

Take One More Click to learn all about Character Day 2017.

[1] http://www.viacharacter.org/www/Character-Strengths

[2] http://www.taoism.net/articles/what_tao.htm

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