After I graduated law school and throughout my career, my mother has sent me near-daily notes with inspiring quotes and words of encouragement. Many of these handwritten notes were written on stationery she created expressly for these notes: “Mother's Thought for the Day” was emblazoned across the top. In later years, after the advent of cellular phones, she sent these notes by text message rather than on paper.

The focus of these “thoughts for the day” was on courage and character, essential elements to both succeeding in a career and in life. The overarching message was that being a person of character is important. Each individual message has highlighted a different aspect of strong character. Here are 10 of them:

1. Courage. It takes courage to take your first deposition or argue for the first time in court. Courage, too, is required to continue to build your skill set, to develop business development skills, and put yourself “out there” over and over again to gain new clients. My mother had two pieces of advice for this: one, in her own words; the other, from Robert Kennedy. Mother: “Don't be scared. Scared will not allow you to move forward.” And Kennedy: “If our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.”