Happy Friday!

James Henderson
Jun 8, 2018
3 min read

"The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home." - Confucius

I hope you had a wonderful Thursday. I know you stayed focused and are ready for today. You will be giving your best efforts today to accomplish everything you need too, right? No slacking off today, right? Great attitude! Let's focus on a topic that can really help you. I am sure you have dealt with people at work, other companies, colleges, universities, and hospitals. They can either have it or not. It can make your want to be there or run as fast as you can away from there. So, what is it? INTEGRITY! It is an unimpaired condition. It is the quality or state of being complete or undivided. It is a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values. Now that what we know what it is based on Merriam Webster's Dictionary, less dive into it. As I stated earlier, you have dealt with it. You may not have dealt with it in all of the examples that I have given, yet somewhere in your life it is present. The reason why I am writing about this is because we are all on our journey towards our goals, and we must have this component. Imagine you are going to purchase something for your life, family or your business and the person you are dealing with has no integrity. Let say this person sells you something that is missing parts, doesn't work, or barely works and needs major repairs that were not disclosed to you. How do you feel in this situation? Are you happy? Are you content with it?

What if you are going to get a loan and the person does not disclose the detail of the terms and you end up with a huge interest that you had no clue you needed to cover? What if you went to buy food at your favorite restaurant and all the certificates on the wall were expired and there were rats/roaches in the kitchen? How about you are using the company restroom and use up the last roll of toilet paper, or the last piece of paper towel. Without thought for the needs of the next employee, you go back to work rather than addressing the issue and leaving the next person sitting on the toilet with no paper.

Now, think about a person who demonstrates sound moral and ethical principles in life. I hope you are thinking about yourself. Having integrity is the foundation on which people build relationships. A person who has integrity lives his or her values in relationships with people. Honesty and trust are parts of integrity along with acting with honor and truthfulness. People who demonstrate integrity draw others to them because they are trustworthy and dependable. Because these people have integrity they are principled and can be counted on to behave in honorable ways even when no one is watching or even knows about their performance. A key point is doing things when no one is looking or even knows about your performance. There are so many ways this shows up in each of our lives. This is so important as we are on this journey. As I have mentioned before, red velvet cheesecake is a weakness for me. If left alone I would eat the entire cheesecake with no remorse in one feast. If I am to have integrity with myself, I must hold myself accountable to not eat the entire cheesecake. I know one slice is enough, however, no one is looking, why not have 2, 3, or all the slices? Because I must act with honor and truthfulness to myself. If I am truly working on losing weight and controlling my habits it is mandatory for me to remain in control and be truthful. Have you ever dealt with a person that tells you that doing or eating something is bad for you, yet that person enjoys that very thing regularly? Are you that person? You owe it to yourself to be the best person you can be. It starts by being real with who you are and making the necessary changes in order to live your life with integrity.