Integrity is following your own rules when no one is looking. Integrity is breaking the rules when everyone is looking, the rules that don’t make sense, that act against the best interests of humankind.
Integrity is knowing your values and acting in accordance with them. Integrity is doing what you say you will do. It is walking the walk and talking the talk
Integrity is telling the truth and acting honestly. Integrity inspires trust. Trust is hard to earn and easy to break.
Integrity is built through consistency and broken when you make exceptions, carve-outs, one-off changes and the like. Integrity has the power to build us up. A lack of integrity has the power to tear us down and take down those around us.
The word integrity comes from the Latin word integer, meaning whole or complete. Integrity refers to a “wholeness” of someone that comes from qualities such as honesty and consistency of character.
Integrity isn’t something that you are born with — or born without. It is a behavior-based trait that you can cultivate over time. Act with integrity and you have integrity. Act without integrity and you can lose it just as fast.
The qualities that make up integrity stem from decisions that we make. It is a decision to do the right thing. At any time we can change our character from someone with integrity to someone without. Or from someone without integrity to someone with.
The easiest way to have integrity is to make it a requirement. Make it a “must do.” Don’t give yourself another option. Make it an immutable part of your character.
Affirm your own integrity. Commit to integrity. It will help you sleep at night and make the world a better place.
