A Christ-like character is something that we all try to reach, as His disciples. Think about it: Settling for anything less misses the point of spiritual growth. Our goal is to become the "whole measure".

As far as I know, being "myself" will not get me into heaven. With all of my "good intentions", I am a selfish, sinful man. But becoming the man that God sees me to be, if I can develop the character of Christ, will. Jesus made it quite clear in His sermon on the Mount that eternal rewards in heaven will be based on the character we develop & demonstrate here on Earth. So this should change our perspective with our preaching - it's not meant to be informative, but to change lives. Look at what Paul told Timothy as to the purpose of teaching & developing character in those he taught:

Character isn't built in a classroom, but on life itself. And the classroom that the Bible brings, is simply a place where we can identify those character qualities & teach how character is developed. And when we become able to understand how God uses circumstances to develop character, we can then respond correctly when God puts us in character-building opportunities. God build our character by allowing us to experience situations where we are tempted to do the opposite of God's character quality. And it should come to no surprise that character development always involves a choice - When we make the right choice, our character grows more like Christ.

Refresher: nine qualities that reflect a Christ-like character

This fruit of the spirit is a perfect picture of Jesus because he embodied all 9 qualities. And if we're going to develop a Christ-like character, then we too must have these qualities in our lives. Whenever we choose to respond to a situation in God’s way instead of following our natural inclination, we develop character. For this reason, He allows all kinds of character-building circumstances: conflict, disappointment, difficulty, temptation, times of dryness, and delays.