Unlock Your Potential with a Little Secret!
Posted on July 1, 2008
What is one thing that no one can ever take away?
What is one thing that will ALWAYS make you more successful?
What is one thing that will make you a better person?
What is one thing that will help you create long lasting healthy relationships?
What is one thing that EVERYONE admires?
I hope I am all but too obvious on the answer to these questions!
Integrity - by no means a simple definition:
Integrity is
1. adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
2. the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire.
3. a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition: the integrity of a ship’s hull
Definition complements of Dictionary.com
Integrity is something that is who you are. Integrity defines your principles, your self, your whole being. So many people think that integrity is some old fashion and historical descriptive term because of the utter lack of it in our World today. I challenge each of you to think about everyone in your life and decide who really has integrity. As I write this article I struggle to find a majority of those that I would truly say have integrity. What is even worse, I can think of only a handful of our country’s leaders (politicians) that even come close. What about those that influence millions on television and in the movies? How many of them have integrity? What about professional athletes, singers, dancers, etc?
Integrity can never be taken away.
Your integrity can never be taken away. Each one of us decide whether or not to hold on to or give away our integrity every second of our lives. Your integrity can never be taken, but it is not hard to give it away. Integrity is slippery and if not persistently worked on will be gone. Here are a few things that you can do each day to keep integrity in your grasp:
1. Always tell the TRUTH. Sounds simple, but in our society today so many people lie and do not even bat an eye.
Friend: "How are you?"
You: "I’m fine."
Ring any bells?
2. Be yourself. Do not let the outside influences of the World change who you are. When you are true to your self, you are whole.
3. Admit and forget imperfections. Admit when you are wrong or imperfect, but then forget about it. Dwelling on your short comings, perceived ones, will only lead to cover ups and lying.
Integrity leads to SUCCESS.
By being honest, moral, and whole success will find you. You will always be more successful when people trust and admire you. In today’s World it is such a rare commodity and should not be ruined for short term goals or dreams. Of course some people may get a head by lying and not having integrity, but it will always catch up with them. Think of all the people that have fallen from the highest mountain tops because of lies and lack of integrity.
Integrity builds relationships and you.
What does everyone in this World have in common?
Interaction with other people!
By having impeccable integrity you will not only create a better life for yourself, you will create a better life for those around you. By having true integrity you will build relationships that you never thought possible. Imagine relationships that are honest and filled with positive feelings. Your life will be admired because you are trusted and everyone around you will get a sense of easy because your attitude and mannerisms will be filled with integrity.
Think for one moment about who you are most comfortable around (a mentor or close friend). Now think for a moment about who you hate to go around (car salesman). Which one would you consider to have integrity? Now think about which person you want to be and the people that you want to be around.
I hope this article has made you think about who you are and who you want to be. I know that writing this article has made me realize how precious integrity is and how easy it is to let it slip away. Each of us needs to practice each day to build and nurture our integrity. We need to spread it and let it grow, we need to teach it and pass it on, we need to not let our World become a World with out INTEGRITY!
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2 Responses to “Unlock Your Potential with a Little Secret!”
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Nice article Brad. The film “The Insider” came to mind when reading this post - for me that movie sums up integrity very nicely.
Peter | Pick The Brains last blog post..Using Creativity to Carve Out Your Niche in Life
[...] Unlock Your Potential with a Little Secret! | Juic… This 26 year old blogger has a great point here. Integrity is the one thing you should strive for at all costs. Great post and a blog worth looking deeper into. [...]