INTEGRITY
For a person , integrity is a matter of that person word . Nothing more , nothing less .
There are two aspects of integrity :
1.Keeping your word .
2.Honouring your word .
Keeping your word consists of all off the following :
- doing what you said you would do and doing it on time .
- doing what you know to do and doing it as it was meant to be done , and doing it on time
- Doing what others would expect you to do , even if you haven’t said that you would do it and doing it on time .
- Doing what others would expect you to do , even if you haven’t said that you would do it and doing it on time .
- Doing what others would expect you to do , even if you haven’t said that you would do it and doing it on time .
Unless you are playing a small game in life , you will not always keep your word .
Honouring your word is :
Whenever you will not be keeping your word , just as soon as you become aware of that you will not be keeping your word (including you will not keep your word on time ) saying to everyone impacted :
- that you will not be keeping your word
- that you will keep that word in the future and by when , or that you wont be keeping that word at all
- what you will do to deal with the impact on others of the failure to keep your word or to keep it on time .
Restoring your integrity
What do you do if you don’t keep your word and you break a promise or an agreement ? You can restore your integrity by doing the following :
- acknowledge the promise or agreement that you broke .
- distinguish the impact caused by breaking the promise or agreement .
- say what you will put on place to ensure you don’t break that promise or agreement again in the future .
Majority of the people keep their word with other people and maintain their integrity clean.
The most easy and common lack of integrity is with ourselves .
We make promises to ourselves that we will go to the gym , exercise ,we will eat more healthy , that we will work on our personal development , that we will invest in ourselves, that we will stop procrastinating , quit smoking etc the list can go to infinite promises that we make on ourselves and we don’t keep the word . This is happening because no one can’t keep us accountable for our promises comparing to promises that you make to other people . Other people will keep you accountable for your promises and agreements without hesitation .
Living life without integrity will massively affect the quality of your life and you will live below of your potential .
Example :
Let’s say you are a player registered with an amateur football team that plays football matches on a Sunday league at 10 am .
Scenario 1 (you cannot be there at 10 am you will be there at 10:30 because of the traffic, but you take action )
You can’t keep your integrity in this scenario as you will be 30 mins late , but you can honour your word . You realised at 9:50 that you will be late and immediately call your coach and let him know that I will be 30 mins late , and also you can restore your integrity by saying that you know that you being late has an impact on the team and on the match as will be delayed and you can promise that in the future will not happen again .
If this scenario happens one or two times in a 40 week season your integrity will still be intact but if it happens more then 5/6 times you will lose your integrity, your team and coach will not trust your words even if you tell the truth .
Scenario 2 (you cannot be there at 10 am you will be there at 10:30 because of the traffic and you don’t take no action)
In this scenario you decide not to call the coach or no one in your team to let them know that you will be late , you don’t honour your word and you don’t restore your integrity .
This situation will be ok if it happens once in a 40 week season but if it 2/3 times your integrity in the team will be lost and your word will not be trusted until you repair your integrity .
