Practice virtues as interconnected, not separate — When a virtue feels absent, look for which related virtue is also being neglected. 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. Cultivate virtue through deliberate habituation — Do the virtuous action — even imperfectly, even without the feeling — until the disposition follows. 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. Identify the virtues you most need to cultivate — Name the three character traits whose absence most limits you — those are your practice targets. 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. View your life as a narrative, not a sequence of choices — Ask: what story am I living, and does it reflect the character I am trying to build? The virtue audit — Ask which of the four Stoic virtues you exercised — and which you neglected — today. The Eulogy Virtues: Building a Life of Character — David Brooks distinguishes two sets of virtues: résumé virtues — the skills and achievements that get you hired — and eulogy virtues — the moral qualities like courage, honesty, and loyalty that people mention when you die. His argument is that modern culture relentlessly develops the first set while neglecting the second, and that deliberately cultivating character requires different work: self-examination, wrestling with weakness, and submission to commitments beyond self-interest. VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical — Peterson and Seligman’s VIA Classification identifies 24 character strengths organized under six virtues, and multiple randomized trials find that using your top "signature strengths" in new ways reliably increases well-being and decreases depressive symptoms. The effect is most robust when strengths are deployed in engaged, relational ways — not just recognized but actively applied.

Coaching practices for How Virtues Relate

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How Virtues Relate, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

I keep trying to fix one trait
I’ve got a list of my strengths but it reads like a flat personality quiz
I keep waiting until I feel brave or patient or generous before I act that way, and the feeling never reliably shows up
I want to become a better person but "be better" is too vague to act 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

Practice virtues as interconnected, not separate
When a virtue feels absent, look for which related virtue is also being neglected.
Virtue Ethics, Made Practical
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
Cultivate virtue through deliberate habituation
Do the virtuous action — even imperfectly, even without the feeling — until the disposition follows.
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.
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
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
View your life as a narrative, not a sequence of choices
Ask: what story am I living, and does it reflect the character I am trying to build?
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
The Eulogy Virtues: Building a Life of Character
David Brooks distinguishes two sets of virtues: résumé virtues — the skills and achievements that get you hired — and eulogy virtues — the moral qualities like courage, honesty, and loyalty that people mention when you die. His argument is that modern culture relentlessly develops the first set while neglecting the second, and that deliberately cultivating character requires different work: self-examination, wrestling with weakness, and submission to commitments beyond self-interest.
VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical
Peterson and Seligman’s VIA Classification identifies 24 character strengths organized under six virtues, and multiple randomized trials find that using your top "signature strengths" in new ways reliably increases well-being and decreases depressive symptoms. The effect is most robust when strengths are deployed in engaged, relational ways — not just recognized but actively applied.

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