Pursuing success is like building a house, you have to start with the foundation and get it right or nothing else works right. I gave you five aspects of true success yesterday and the first is the growth of our character. Character traits have a natural progression in that certain ones need to come early on for others to be developed. There is a cluster group of five character traits that work together to form a very strong foundation for all future growth, accomplishment, and  success. I am going to use the word strong as the descriptor/title for this group of five character traits. As I blog on this topic for a couple of months I will end up describing twenty different principles that if followed will result in being a truly successful person. Principle number one is “In order to become a successful person you must first become a strong person”. The five character traits that work together to make a strong person are (1) diligence, (2) endurance, (3) faithfulness, (4) self-control, and (5) toughness. People with the character trait of diligence enjoy working hard, pushing, and sacrificing. Being tired at the end of the day is a badge of honor, not a dreaded consequence. Because getting a lot accomplished is a major source of joy for diligent people they learn how to make the most of their time. Endurance is simply the refusal to quit. Faithfulness is keeping our word, doing what we said we would do. A key component of faithful people is that they are as careful to do what they said with little, seemingly unimportant things as they are with major ones. Self-control is really the core of this group in that if you have self-control the other four are relatively easy, but if you don’t have self control the other four are impossible. Self-control is you being in control of your choices not your flesh, the devil or the people around you. Tough people play hurt to use a sports phrase. They tolerate and handle pain, disappointment, and grief without becoming self -absorbed, consumed with self-pity, and chronic grumblers.