INTEGRITY

THINK, DECIDE, ACT. "By doing this, I will be adhering to the following spritual principles, Rationality, INTEGRITY, Idependence, Honesty, Justice, Productiveness and Pride.

http://heroofyourlife.blogspot.ca/2009/11/my-mission-statement.html

Integrity as a principle, is often stated as a synonym to honesty. However, I think the distinction has to do with a couple of different things. I think honesty can be described as "loyalty to the facts" and "being truthful to others".

Integrity on the other hand, has more to do with "being truthful to yourself" and "thinking and behaving in an integrated manner".

Thinking and behaving in an integrated manner should mean that I avoid "compartmentalizing", ie. acting and thinking in one way, in one area of my life, and then having a different standard in another area of my life. This could be a matter of acting competitively in my business life, and then altruistically in my personal life, or being very orderly and focused in my business goals and neglecting my health and fitness.

Also, I think having integrity means that my goals are my own, and not attempting to live up to the expectations of others.

As a social animal, I think it's normal to appreciate recognition, but it is second handed to compromise one's principles in order to please others and/or to win approval.

Therefore, when one "thinks, decides and acts", these are all aspects that must be considered if one is to act with integrity.

Also, of course what must be integrated is what we claim to espouse and how we actually behave...."walking the talk" or "practicing what we preach".

Failing to do so, is an obvious breach of ingegrity, and there will necessarily be consequences for doing this. As mentioned previously, a true spriritual principle is self-evident but also consistent. In other words, it is not up to opinion. So one is free to disagree with the law of gravity if one chooses, but this will not change the outcome should he or she choose to step off the edge of a tall building.

One inevitable consequence to trying to breach integrity (among many others) is the loss of self-esteem, as no matter how hard we try, we will know that we don't have it, and our self-image will accurately be lowered as it should be.

Any attempt to deny this by evading that conclusion will further lower one's self-esteem. Better to admit to one's self that there are areas where he lacks integrity, than to rationalize the breach.

Truthfully, I think there will always be breaches, as becoming a fully integrated person is a life goal. There will be times when we have that extra piece of cake or act lazily and not in accordance with our goals. Hoepfully these events are minor and exceptions rather than the rule. But at the very least, when we fall short, we must admit it to ourselves and others and resolve to do better in the future.

Again, this blog and my mission serve as a reminder to correct when needed. Thanks for reading.