Coaching practices for How to Develop a Virtue
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Develop a Virtue, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I keep waiting until I feel brave or patient or generous before I act that way, and the feeling never reliably shows up
- I keep trying to fix one trait
- I want to become a better person but "be better" is too vague to act on
- I want to actually become a better person, not just vaguely intend to, but "be better" is so fuzzy I never know what I’m working on
- I work on my character all in my own head, by my own standards, and it stays abstract and unproven
Practices that may help
- Cultivate virtue through deliberate habituation
Do the virtuous action — even imperfectly, even without the feeling — until the disposition follows.
Virtue Ethics, Made Practical - Practice virtues as interconnected, not separate
When a virtue feels absent, look for which related virtue is also being neglected.
Virtue Ethics, Made Practical - Identify the virtues you most need to cultivate
Name the three character traits whose absence most limits you — those are your practice targets.
Virtue Ethics, Made Practical - The virtue audit
Ask which of the four Stoic virtues you exercised — and which you neglected — today.
The Stoic Daily Review - Embed your virtues in a practice community
The virtues needed for excellence in any serious practice (craft, sport, relationship) are real virtues — find the practice that calls them out.
Virtue Ethics, Made Practical - Virtue Ethics, Made Practical
Virtue ethics, developed by Aristotle and extended by thinkers like Alasdair MacIntyre, holds that ethics is primarily about who you are rather than which rules you follow or which outcomes you produce. The practical core: identify the virtues a flourishing human being needs, and train them through deliberate habitual action — because character is what you repeatedly do, not what you occasionally decide. - Building character through deliberate repetition
Choose one character quality you want to embody and perform one specific act of it daily until it no longer requires effort.
Aristotelian Eudaimonia: Flourishing Through Virtue - Connect individual strengths to the broader virtues they serve
Understand which of the six VIA virtues your signature strengths express, and what that reveals about your character.
VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical - Name and wrestle with your besetting weakness
Identify the one recurring moral failure and choose a practice that confronts it daily.
The Eulogy Virtues: Building a Life of Character - Learning through exemplar study
Study the conduct of a person you consider exemplary and identify one specific behaviour you can emulate.
Confucian Self-Cultivation: The Mencius Approach
Related concerns
- Four Cardinal Virtues Daily
Ask which of the four Stoic virtues you exercised — and which you neglected — today.
The virtue audit
- Virtue By Repetition
Choose one character quality you want to embody and perform one specific act of it daily until it no longer requires effort.
Building character through deliberate repetition
- How To Build Virtue
Name the three character traits whose absence most limits you — those are your practice targets.
Identify the virtues you most need to cultivate
- Virtue Ethics Character Strengths
Understand which of the six VIA virtues your signature strengths express, and what that reveals about your character.
Connect individual strengths to the broader virtues they serve
- Virtue Ethics Daily Life
Virtue ethics, developed by Aristotle and extended by thinkers like Alasdair MacIntyre, holds that ethics is primarily about who you are rather than which rules you follow or which outcomes you produce. The practical core: identify the virtues a flourishing human being needs, and train them through deliberate habitual action — because character is what you repeatedly do, not what you occasionally decide.
- Virtue Ethics Daily Practice
Virtue ethics, developed by Aristotle and extended by thinkers like Alasdair MacIntyre, holds that ethics is primarily about who you are rather than which rules you follow or which outcomes you produce. The practical core: identify the virtues a flourishing human being needs, and train them through deliberate habitual action — because character is what you repeatedly do, not what you occasionally decide.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.