Integrity

Is there anything more annoying than trying to deal with someone who doesn't do what they say they are going to?  I know that I get incredibly frustrated when people fail to follow through on their promises.  

Integrity is defined by Websters as firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.  Dr. Henry Cloud defines integrity as the courage to meet the demands of reality.  I like to keep things simple so my definition of integrity is: Doing the right thing, at the right time, every time.  

We have all had those moments in life where we consider taking the easy way out.  The shortcut. The safe choice.  Do you do the right thing every time?  Or only when others are watching?  Now I am not suggesting that I am perfect.  I am not and I have no interest in being perfect.  However, when I wake up in the morning I strive for excellence.  I strive to lead life joyfully and to lift someone up every morning when I get up.  But I am still a work in progress and I will be until the day that I die.

Yesterday as I was listening to an audio training the speaker said something that resonated with me.  And I think that it resonated with me because I have a growth opportunity in this area.  Brendon Burchard said "Inconsistency is easy, in fact it is the easiest thing in the world. But consistency which may be hard, makes life easy."  Wow.  How true is that?  Do you have areas in your life where you could work at being more consistent?  I am betting that you do. After all we are a society of convenience.  Our "food" gets served to us through our car windows.  We do our banking the same way.  In the event that we go to the grocery store the majority of aisles are comprised with "food" that we just add water to, or through it in the microwave, or eat it straight from the bag.  We like things to be easy so when we are doing something in our life and we come up against resistance...we fold. We quit. We take our ball and we go home.  We justify it to ourselves that life is about happiness.  That life shouldn't be hard.  That we didn't really like it anyway.  Admit it, you have done this somewhere in your life.  I know that I have.  

Take football for example...I am new at it.  And I am not very good at it.  And our team is new playing together so we don't mesh the best.  There is some drama at times.  So some days I would rather quit that deal with the frustration of it all.  I will come home from a game angry.  And figure that if I quit, then I could focus my energy somewhere else.  I would have four hours a week to volunteer or go to the gym or wash my hair. But at the end of the day quitting is easy.  And I hate to quit.  I committed to the team so I will be there come hell or high water.  

Working from home and for myself is an entirely different challenge.  It requires large degrees of consistency and integrity.  Man does it ever.  This is where I have the most room to grow.  How do I create a routine that embraces all that I want to see from my companies and from myself?  How do you balance work and life?  How does one sit and write with a basket of laundry sitting right next to you needing to be folded?  When does one draw the line between I am surfing the web researching others in my field and I am surfing the web procrastinating from cleaning the house?  This takes a great amount of integrity and consistency.  For those of you reading my blog, I would love to hear your suggestions.  

Over the next while it will be my goal to examine areas in my life that I can live with more integrity and consistency.  My guess is that I will find I can treat myself with more integrity.  I do what I say that I am going to do when it comes to others.  But when it comes to myself...I am inconsistent.  Yes, dear husband, that means I will get better at taking my 24 vitamins every day.  

Do you have room for growth?  Are you willing to explore it?  Are you willing to work towards living your life with more integrity and consistency than you do already?  My hope is that you answer yes.  We all know this world could use more integrity.

On that note...

I wish you a day as Beautiful as you.

Much Love,

Lisa