CharacterYAQ Qualities

High/Low descriptions are from the CharacterYAQ card game.

Definitions are from Couple Vitality book.

Adherence

High: Follows rules, values boundaries, and keeps commitments.

Low: Believes that rules are made to be broken.

Adherence is following guidelines, rules, agreements, and laws created to protect relationships, safety, and order; staying faithful to promises made to others, including a partnership commitment.

Compassion

High: Listens, understands, cares, and comforts others.

Low: Hasn’t a clue what’s going on in other’s lives.

Compassion is demonstrating a unique capacity to listen deeply to others about their situations; understanding others’ feelings; caring for others’ well-being; and seeking ways to ease someone’s pain and suffering in mutually satisfactory ways.

Creativity

High: Comes up with new, positive, or artistic ideas, activities, and approaches.

Low: Stuck in an old boring routine, afraid to try anything new.

Creativity is drawing on ideas, inspiration, or imagination from many sources to develop or produce something new; being resourceful, intuitive, and solving problems in unique and beneficial ways; and immersing in a problem or situation, looking broadly for insights and connections, allowing for breakthrough ideas and solutions to emerge.

Dependability

High: Keeps commitments and honestly handles information, money, and possessions.

Low: Breaks promises and mishandles responsibilities.

Dependability is making and keeping commitments, completing agreed tasks, honestly managing resources and money, handling information wisely, and cleaning up after mistakes.

Excellence

High: Expects and delivers superior results.

Low: Provides sloppy performance and neglects relationships.

Excellence is achieving high standards and a superior quality of work, effort, appearance, relationships, and personal development; learning and improving from experiences; and continually raising and meeting expectations.

Flexibility

High: Open to learn, adapts to changes, and engages in personal growth.

Low: Strongly resists change of all types.

Flexibility is being open to change and surprises, adjusting and adapting to life as it happens; being nimble in responding to different people and situations; and considering new and different approaches, methods, ideas, and viewpoints.

Friendliness

High: Connects with others in a warm and outgoing way.

Low: Holds back and is cool and distant with others.

Friendliness is demonstrating an outgoing and positive social attitude; reaching out to connect and build relationships with people; and gracious and warm consideration for others by interacting with polite manners, respectful gestures, thoughtful actions, and honest but kind words.

Honor

High: Chooses to do what's right.

Low: Goes along with the crowd and compromises principles.

Honor is having clear principles, beliefs, and positive intentions that guide actions to create beneficial change.

Humility

High: Assesses oneself clearly, offers one's best, and puts others first.

Low: Grabs the spotlight and treats others as inferior.

Humility is seeing and accepting one’s whole self, including strengths, imperfections, abilities, accomplishments, failures, and needs in modest and realistic perspective; offering one’s time, knowledge, and talents in a self-effacing way; and being willing to accept the knowledge, skills, and help of others.

Justice

High: Observes accurately and takes action to prevent or resolve unfair issues.

Low: Breaks the law and treats others in a lousy way.

Justice is making careful, independent, and proactive observations of others’ actions; initiating decisions, agreements, or actions based on clear facts that are free of bias or prejudice; ensuring fair rewards and appropriate natural consequences or agreed corrective actions occur; and setting appropriate boundaries in relationships.

Moderation

High: Balances all aspects of life and relationships.

Low: Works or plays intensely, often making extreme choices.

Moderation is recognizing and avoiding extremes in use of time, words, actions, and other choices; accomplishing variety, balance, and positive outcomes in such aspects as rest, work, community service, and leisure activities; and effectively applying and adjusting a level of intensity of focus and action to both accomplish goals and protect relationships and well-being.

Orderliness

High: Keeps all things tidy, clean, and organized.

Low: Piles up everything everywhere.

Orderliness is living and working with a sense of harmony; creating uncluttered, well-organized, clean, and shareable spaces; developing systems that allow for easy finding; and systematically planning improvements, tasks, and projects.

Perseverance

High: Pushes ahead towards goals even through difficulties.

Low: Gives up.

Perseverance is applying energy, effort, and resources toward worthwhile goals until achievement is attained; being committed to the long-term future benefit of actions done in the present; and using focused determination to overcome challenges or adversities as they arise.

Positive Spirit

High: Smiles, laughs, and is happy and positive about life.

Low: Whines, moans, and complains about everything.

Positive Spirit is maintaining a happy, optimistic, and uplifting attitude; energetically celebrating the best in relationships, work, and service; and looking at the positive side of circumstances.

Purposefulness

High: Focuses on achieving long- term goals.

Low: Wanders aimlessly everywhere

Purposefulness is pursuing and fulfilling meaningful long-term personal goals, commitments, aspirations, and needs; contributing ideas, words, and actions; and participating primarily in vital activities that contribute to desired outcomes.

Reflection

High: Thinks about life choices and circumstances to build understanding.

Low: Lacks insight.

Reflection is calm self-awareness, understanding, and assessment; inwardly exploring actions, circumstances, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions; seeking inspiration; and analyzing to learn the best approaches for improving situations.

Respect

High: Values others and treats them well.

Low: Tramples on whatever is important to others.

Respect is interacting with all people and what they value with fair treatment, dignity, consideration, and esteem; and recognizing the best knowledge, skills, talents, and abilities of others.

Self-Discipline

High: Controls actions and reactions to focus on what is most important.

Low: Loses control and is easily diverted.

Self-Discipline is maintaining the inner control to perform needed and important tasks in a timely way; consciously responding in appropriate ways; and choosing what is beneficial or productive and resisting what is harmful or distracting.I is maintaining the inner control to perform needed and important tasks in a timely way; consciously responding in appropriate ways; and choosing what is beneficial or productive and resisting what is harmful or distracting.

Service

High: Acts selflessly for others.

Low: Stands by and can't be bothered.

Service is acting selflessly and often sacrificially, directly or indirectly, and with positive intent; and providing time, knowledge, or resources to benefit others without expecting reward or recognition.

Trust

High: Believes in the good intentions and behavior of others.

Low: Avoids having others in control or involved.

Trust is generously extending confidence; assuming the good intentions and actions of others; accompanying others through learning experiences that build skills and capacities; and giving and expecting appropriate confidentiality.

Truthfulness

High: Finds the facts and shares them accurately.

Low: Lies, manipulates, deceives, and defames others.

Truthfulness is recognizing and accurately communicating facts and feelings; independently seeking knowledge of people, circumstances, issues, and information.

Unity

High: Seeks shared understanding and harmony while building group interests and goals.

Low: Gets everyone fighting.

Unity is consciously looking for and strengthening points of commonality, harmony, connection, and attraction; accepting and leveraging differences; and working with others to build a strong and coherent foundation for oneness, love, fairness, commitment, inclusion, cooperation, and common goals.

Source and Copyright: The definitions in this list are the copyright of CharacterYAQ™ (characteryaq.com) and Susanne M. Alexander, W. Grant Peirce IV, and Johann S. Wong. None of the definitions should be reproduced for any purpose without written permission from the copyright holders. Thank you for your Respect for our work.