The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good and how he treats people who can't fight back.

Abigail van Buren

This is an important skill for anyone looking to take charge of their life. Interaction with other people is an everyday activity and to build strong, healthy, long-lasting relationships, they need to evaluate those around them and be able to decern a good character.

As much as it is thought of as a natural skill ie intuition, one can learn and master how to choose people with the right character to be around them. For one to be a good judge of character, one should be more cautious and not blindly trust others without compromise.

What to look out for

Habits What people do naturally comes and is directed by their hearts and mind in most cases human beings follow a certain routine with what they do. Be observant of their free time. Is it more productive or destructive to themselves and others?

Pay attention. Take interesting how they behave and act alone and around others. Do they treat others below them unkindly and those they respect with respect? Listen attentively to their conversations, and are if they are meaningful and not egocentric. Self-absorbed individuals are not the best characters to be around.

Trust your sixth senseThis intuition, although not proven, tends to be our life compass and directs us to the best choices. A strong negative sense of someone or a situation should be adhered to.

Interest. Understand the people around you. What their interests are. What do enjoy doing, do they occupy their time with self-improving activities like eating healthy or exercising, or are they leaning towards undesirable activities? It shows off a good or bad display of character.

Qualities. Look out for some of the good virtues in a person. They sound simple and cliché but they say a lot about a person. Some virtues include;

• Courtesy.

• Time consciousness.

• Punctuality.

• Common sense.

• Respect.

• Patience.

Remember, these qualities should be consistent and not seasonal. Have you ever, even once witnessed an act of kindness by this person? Any kind from helping out to being there?

Watch out for show-offs at any opportunity they get. How often do they self-promote, and show off their achievements and promotions? These small actions show an over-inflated view of themselves and a lack of humility and modesty.

Individuals with good character assessment skills have;

High emotional intelligence. This means they are in control of their emotions. Their reactions to stress are top-notch and can be cool and sober despite soaring anger levels.

They are optimistic and generally open-minded,willing to listen and observe. This special ability equips them with special skills to judge other people's characters well, perhaps because they are least absorbed in themselves and pay more attention to others, and can foresee other characters.

Excellent behavior evaluation This means that these people do not necessarily agree with you but prove them wrong later when your predictions come to pass. The ability to judge and decipher someone's actions can make one predict their next move. This, however, is not necessarily true for everyone.

Attentiveness For one to be a good judge of character, one has to have all the information one needs to make judgments. These individuals can obtain a relatively large amount of useful information about the people around them.

Observing A person's body language is a good way to capture indications of some personality traits like eye contact, handshakes, or interest through his/ her body language. One can be able to tell if someone is confident, timid, or hiding something. Judgment of character is done willingly or unwillingly. It's an innate ability.

Research suggests that it takes just 30 seconds to make up our minds about someone's intelligence and personality and that tends to be surprisingly accurate. People will make better decisions when they accurately judge the personality of others and knowledge about the process of accurate judgment may help people make more accurate judgments.

What makes most people poor judges of character is the inability to tell the traits of poor characters that make them dangerous, untrustworthy, manipulative, and abusive among other undesirable qualities. The ability to discern their ulterior motives. Do not be carried away by their physical appearances or other variables like intelligence or charming nature, at the end of the rope will you witness their real nature.

The best approach always is to take your time observing others in all situations from unpleasant to happy circumstances. Observe their daily responses and reactions and then you will be able to make correct, accurate judgments of the people around you.