Does self-discipline always build character? Not necessarily.

Psychologist Sarah Schnitker explains why virtue grows best when rooted in purpose beyond the self. Through studies of marathon runners fundraising for clean water, she shows how pro-social and spiritual motivations—not just personal fitness goals—led to deeper growth in generosity, patience, and self-control.

This research challenges the idea that self-improvement alone leads to virtue. When moral purpose and shared meaning enter the picture, transformation becomes more than personal: it becomes relational and lasting.

SARAH SCHNITKER: I think we might approach virtue development as really a self-serving, impersonal activity. And self-growth is a good thing. We want to be healthier, happier individuals. But what our data show is that virtue development is going to be more potent when it is shared with other people.

For example, if I am committed to sustainability, seeing nature as sacred, that is a cause that shared with people all around the world. Or someone could be motivated to be a good citizen, to engage others and practice humility and patience. This connection with others provides the motivation necessary to do the hard work of building those virtues.

I think a great example of this is when we think about people training for a marathon with a philanthropic running team. Many people who train for these kind of races say they grow a lot in their virtues, in self-control or patience or generosity through this really difficult practice of running. And so we thought, well, this is interesting. Is that actually the case?

We looked at their generosity as well as three types of motivations. We looked at their health and fitness motivation, their motivation related to the pro-social cause of raising money for clean water efforts, and then their motivation to grow spiritually and get closer to God.

And what we found is that in general, not everyone actually grew in their virtues, but they did if they grew in motivations not just focused on my own health and fitness. Like generosity, you have to move beyond the self. Generosity is connected to the bigger meaning of why they're doing this. And so it leads to virtue growth, and not just the health and fitness benefits.

The motivation matters. And you won't necessarily experience the character growth from a practice like running and training for a race, unless you are also growing in those moral motivations over time.

So it's a pretty sure bet that if we can make our story less about ourselves and more about contributing to the greater good, that will help us build our virtues. It might not be the only thing it takes, but it will get you started on the pathway to virtue development.