What is Integrity Anyway?

Have you ever done or said something just because someone else persuaded you that that is what you should do? But you really didn't believe in it or want to do it?

Perhaps your desire to please the other person or make him think you agreed with him became more important than honoring your own viewpoint about the subject.

That's the point where you end up violating your integrity — you are no longer "one" with yourself, no longer whole, but split between your own viewpoint and that of someone else. (After all, the root of integrity means "whole".)

Then you have created an internal tug of war.

It takes a certain amount of courage and confidence in yourself to see something and really observe it and tell someone else what you observe.

Why? Because maybe he doesn't observe the same thing and maybe he will shake your belief in yourself if he's trying to get you to do something against your will.

But your first responsibility is to yourself and what you truly observe and believe.

Don't violate that — it's more important than you may have thought. And if you have violated your integrity at times in the past — ok — just recognize that and go back in your mind and realign yourself with YOU again. It's quite refreshing and reinvigorating!

Keep yourself whole! It makes life a lot easier and is part of your road to success!

By the way, don't confuse this with learning and accepting new information from someone and then willingly changing your viewpoint. Yes, you most definitely can change your mind about things when presented with new information. That's all part of living and getting smarter and saner.

You'll know the difference between the two when it occurs — violating your integrity makes you feel bad. Learning something new and changing your viewpoint makes you feel great. Pretty simple, actually.