 No doubt, skills are useful, talents are necessary and passion is a vital ingredient for the soup of success. However, the possession of unique qualities is what makes a difference today. These unique qualities come in the form of our personalities and with our personalities are our characters judged. Our personalities set us apart for good or bad, they are different from us and they differentiate us from the crowd. So, there is a need for intentional moves to improve them. The potential of a healthy personality is so powerful that Orison Swett Marden said, charm of personality is a divine gift that sways the strongest characters and sometimes even controls the destinies of nations. Building a strong personality is a good and noble goal when it comes to self-development. Building good comes easy though, so for each achievement, one will have to practice deliberateness and consciousness in words and actions. The good news is that it is possible. Following our 10 self-development skills anyone can work with and use to build strong personalities which will make people of excellent characters. 1. Meditate Setting apart time for meditation daily has many benefits. Aside from keeping you sane in an increasingly insane world, meditation helps you create balance within. It is a no-brainer that if you have calm within, you will most likely stay calm no matter how hard a storm rages. Meditation also gives you time for yourself so you can refresh, recharge and recover. Building your day with meditation gives you a boost of serenity which will follow you through the day and reduce the possibility of stress and strain. 2. Surround yourself with positivity It could be in any form, be it words of affirmation, people who love you or a non-toxic environment but ensure that you proactively surround yourself with love and light in all its forms. Mindless will make you also to portray a positive personality to others. It will also help preserve your creativity and sense of inspiration. What this means is that you do not remain and tolerate toxic relationship and you do not manage any abuse. It will not only destroy you but will also weaken your personality and your character. It helps you run at an optimum stage, preserve it in your life. 3. Build on your strength We all have strengths and weaknesses. While you should work on your weaknesses to become more relevant and useful, you should not ignore your strengths or forget to build on them. Building on your strengths means improving on them and doing great things with them. It means discovering more strengths from the previous strengths and serving your world with them. By doing this, you find out more about yourself and build your self-worth and confidence. This confidence in what you can do makes you less disturbed about what you can't do because of your weaknesses. It is also visible to people around you who may learn to trust you simply because of the aura of confidence around you. 4. Learn to work with people It is necessary to be self-dependent to a healthy extent but you need humans. Working with humans can be one of the hardest things to do successfully but it is necessary for success. The goal is to work with each individual in a way that promotes productivity and effectiveness. One way is to learn to communicate effectively and another is to seek to understand people's point of view. When people know that you want to understand them, they will be less aggressive or defensive towards you and that will promote a healthy environment for productive work and relationship. 5. Quit the necessary We've all got flaws and it is one of the duties of life to work on those flaws. Ignoring them won't make them go away and neither will it help you get great personality. Self-development is actively getting better and one of the ways to get better is to quit the bad traits you find in yourself or those pointed out to you by others. Don't steep yourself in self-righteousness and think that you are free from wrongs. They may be small but if they change your personality, they will tarnish your character. You can start a 30-day challenge to quit a bad behavior and stick at it until your brain realizes that the trait is no longer welcome. 6. Begin the necessary There is another need for a 30-day challenge. While quitting bad behavior, the wisest thing to do is to replace the traits with new traits you need to develop. Do you need to get more active? Start. Do you need to read more? Get some books. Do you need to dress more suitable? Learn how. Do you need to speak more positively? Say the words out. By doing what needs you need to do, you actively improve yourself. Change and improvement should go together. 7. Dare The love for the comfort zone is one reason many people are living a life of mediocrity. You cannot attain a height of strong personality by hogging your comfort zone. You need to dare, take risks and attempt great things. Nothing great happens in the comfort zone and staying there will only make your life pass you by. Taking calculated risks is a skill that you need to work on if you want to be known as a person with a great personality. It may be a risk to love, a risk to send in that application, a risk to give that speech or a risk to take that trip. If it is necessary and required of you, then you need to dare. Daring is a part of the next point. 8. Conquer your fear Fear is demoralizing and can make you unproductive. Realize and acknowledge your fears and work against them. If you are afraid of failing, study and pray hard. If you are scared of being laid off, work hard and earn more skills to stay relevant. If you are afraid of getting sick, take care of yourself. The key is to do what you can to defeat your fears. Sometimes, you need to look your fear in the face, imagine the worst that could happen and see how you will overcome even that, that will reduce the potency of fear. 9. Do There are too many thinkers and talkers but not many doers. Go. Do what you have to do. Take that action. Only during the activity would you realize the in and out of the project. Start working on that great idea of yours. Start doing that thing you want to do. Talking and thinking will get you and your ideas nowhere. Only in doing would you be fulfilled with your creation. So get out of your comfort zone. Take a risk and do it. 10. Accept that what is gone is gone. Don't leave in the past. Your life is in the present. Don't look at the past. You left nothing worthwhile there. While in the present, be afraid of regrets and work to avoid regrets in the future. However, things happen and we often find that we made a wrong move, trusted the wrong person, said the wrong thing or did something we shouldn't have. Well, don't entertain regrets for too long. Nothing can be done about the past, nothing. We can only learn from it. What is gone is gone. Also, let go of the past hurts and forgive its past. The past is past. It will be weak of you to leave there. There is so much you can do now to avoid a repeat of the mistake. To build a strong personality takes conscious efforts which are in no way easy, though simple. The best way to deal with these is to realize that self-development is a lifelong project, which never gets completed. The truth means that you will never be fully self-developed. However, practicing the skills listed above will help you get better and better. You will be celebrated and honored. You will have a life worth living and you will be performing your main task in life. For as Eric Form said, man's main task in life is to give birth to himself to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his personality.