How to Be a Good Role Model

Understand yourself. If you want to be a good model for anyone, you must know who you are as a person.

• Identify your values and aspects of your personality that you would want to pass on to others.
• Identify your negative aspects and actively work to resolve or improve them.

Know who looks up to you. Chances are, more people look up to you than you realize. They can be anyone: your children, friends, students, neighbors—and even people who are older than you. When you know who looks up to you and why, you can act on your good qualities more often, reach out to others, and establish strong relationships with those around you.

Make positive choices for yourself and for others. The choices you make affect both you and those who look up to you. Someone might be in a sticky situation and think about your choices, wondering, “What would s/he do in this situation?” When you make positive choices, you teach positive values and ways of thinking to others.

Identify your bad habits, or negative aspects of your personality, and resolve them. Bad habits can be everything from getting drunk repeatedly to not getting enough sleep. To know if if something is a bad habit or not, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does it hurt others around me?
• Is it detrimental to my health?
• Are the results of my actions good or bad?
• What are the long term effects?
• If I stopped doing it, how would the outcome affect me?
• Is it a habit I would want others to imitate?

Apologize and admit mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. When you make a bad choice, let those who are watching and learning from you know that you made a mistake and how you plan to correct it. This will help them to understand that 1) everyone makes mistakes, 2) you can make things right, and 3) you are responsible for your actions. By apologizing, admitting your mistake, and repairing the damage, you will be demonstrating responsibility, humility, and good communication skills—often overlooked parts of being a role model.

Demonstrate confidence in yourself. Whatever you choose to do with your life, be proud of the person you’ve become and continue to become. It may have been a long and difficult road, but commemorate the lessons you learned, the strength you've amassed, and the character you've developed.