by: Nilesh Gore
Integrity is one of the great aspect of personality which has drastic impact on mind & has a direct effect on traits. But why it is fruitful & resultant one to become a person of integrity? it is because, Person of integrity can only makes own unique & awesome identity with difference. Lets elaborate it, Integrity is a real-time genuine value, like persistence, courage and intensity. Even more than that, it is the value that guarantees all the other values. You are a good person to the degree to which you live your life consistent with the highest values that you Adopt support & promote. Integrity is the immense quality that locks in your values and causes you to live consistent with them. Integrity is the foundation of character. And character development is one of the most important activities you can engage in. Working on your character means disciplining yourself to do more and more of those things that a thoroughly honest person would do, under all circumstances & by finding positive in everything.
To be impeccably straightforward with others, you must first be impeccably honest with yourself. You must be true to yourself. You must be true to the very best that is in you, to the very best that you know. Only a person who is living consistent with his or her highest values and virtues is really living a life of integrity. And when you commit to living this kind of life, you will find yourself continually raising your own standards, continually refining your definition of integrity and honesty, BECAUSE WE ARE WHAT WE REPEDIATELY DO.
You can tell how high your level of integrity is by simply looking at the things you do in your day-to-day life. You can look at your reactions and responses to the inevitable ups and downs of life. You can observe the behaviors you typically engage in and you will then know the person you are.
The external expression of high integrity is high-quality work. A person who is totally direct, open, frank, sincere & straightforward with himself or herself will be someone who does, or strives to do, excellent work on every occasion. The totally honest person recognizes, sometimes instinctively & unconsciously, that everything he or she does is a statement about who he or she really is as a person.
When you start a little earlier, work a little harder, stay a little later and concentrate on every detail, you are practicing integrity in your work. And whether you know it or not, your true level of integrity is apparent and obvious to everyone around you.
Perhaps the most important rule you will ever learn is that your life only becomes better when you become better. All of life is lived from the inside out. At the very core eminent element of your personality lie your values about yourself and life in general. Your values determine the kind, class & type of person you really are. What you believe has defined your character and your personality. It is what you stand for, and what you won't stand for, that tells you and the world the kind of person you have become.
Ask yourself this question: What are your five most main & important values in life? After some confusion & priorities Your answer will reveal an enormous amount about you. What would you pay for, generous for, love for, sacrifice for, suffer for and even die for? What would you stand up for, or refuse to lie down for? What are the values that you hold most dear? Think these questions through carefully, thoughtfully and, when you get a chance, write down your answers.
Here's another way of asking that question. What men and women, living or dead, do you most admire? Once you pick three or four men or women, the next question is: Why do you admire them? What values, qualities, or virtues do they have that you respect and look up to? Can you articulate those qualities? What is a quality possessed by human beings in general that you most respect? This is the starting point for determining your values. The answers to these questions form the peak foundation of your character and your personality.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Guard your integrity as a sacred thing." In study after study, the quality, class & excellence of integrity, or a person's adherence & denotation to values, ranks as the number one quality required in every field.
Integrity is so important that functioning in our society would be impossible without it. We could not make even a simple purchase without a high level of confidence that the price was decent and that the change was correct. The most successful individuals are those with reputations of high integrity among everyone they deal with. This level of integrity builds the confidence that others have in them.
Earl Nightingale once wrote, "If honesty did not exist, it would have to be invented, as it is the surest way of getting rich." There are several things you can do to move you more rapidly toward becoming the kind of person that you know you are capable of becoming. The first, as I mentioned, is to decide upon your five most important values in life. Organize them in order of priority. Then write a brief paragraph defining what each of those values means to you.
A value combined with a definition becomes an organizing principle? a statement that you can use to help you make better decisions. It is a measure and standard which enables you to know how closely you are adhering to your innermost beliefs and convictions.
The second step to developing integrity and character in yourself is to study men and women of great character. Study the lives and stories of people like Swami Vivekanand, Mother Teresa, George Washington, king Shivaji, Samrat Ashoka, Abraham Lincoln. Study the people whose strength of character enabled them to change their world. As you read, think about how they would behave if they were facing the difficulties that you face.
We know that if you feel a particular way, you will act in a manner consistent with that feeling. For example, if you feel happy, you will act happy. If you feel angry, you will act angry. If you feel courageous, you will act courageously. But we also know that you don't always start off feeling the way you want to.
Always Remember “ WE ARE WHAT WE REPEATEDLY DO.”
However, because of the Law of Reversibility, if you act as if you had a particular feeling, the action will generate the feeling consistent with it. You can, in effect, act your way into feeling. You can "fake it until you make it." You can become a superior human being by consciously acting exactly as the kind of person that you would most like to become. If you behave like an individual of integrity, courage, resolution, persistence and character, you will soon create within yourself the mental structure and habits of such a person. Your actions will become your reality. You will create a personality that is consistent with your highest aspirations.
The more you walk, talk, and behave consistent with your highest values, the more you will like yourself and the better you will feel about yourself. Your self-image will improve and your level of self-acceptance will go up. You will feel stronger, bolder, and more capable of facing any challenge.
There are three primary areas of your life where acting with integrity is crucial. These are the three areas of greatest temptation for forsaking your integrity, as well as the areas of greatest opportunity for building your integrity. When you listen to your inner voice and do what you know to be the right thing in each of these areas, you will have a sense of peace and satisfaction that will lead you on to success and high achievement.
The first area of integrity has to do with your relationships with your family and your friends, the people close to you. Being true to yourself means living in truth with each person in your life. It means refusing to say or do something that you don't believe is right. Living in truth with other people means that you refuse to stay in any situation where you are unhappy with the behavior of another person. You refuse to tolerate it. You refuse to compromise. I determined about the fact that most stress and negativity comes from attempting to live in a way that is not harmonious with your highest values. It is when your life is out of alignment? when you are doing and saying one thing on the outside, but really feeling and believing something different on the inside? that you feel most unhappy. When you decide to become an individual of character and integrity, your first action will be to neutralize or remove all difficult relationships from your life. This doesn't mean that you have to go and hit somebody over the head with a stick. It simply means that you honestly confront another person and tell them that you are not happy. Tell them that you would like to reorganize this relationship so that you feel more content and satisfied. If the other person is not willing to make adjustments so that you can be happy, it should be clear to you that you don't want to be in this relationship much longer anyway.
The second area of integrity has to do with your attitude and behavior toward money. Casualness toward money brings casualties in your financial life. You must be dynamics & demanding about your treatment of money, especially other people's money. You must guard your credit rating the same way you would guard your honor. You must pay your bills punctually, or even early. You must keep your promises with regard to your financial commitments.
The third area of integrity has to do with your commitments to others, especially in your business, your work and your sales activities. Always keep your word. Be a man or a woman of honor. If you say that you will do something, do it. If you make a promise, keep it. If you make a commitment, fulfill it. Be known as the kind of person that can be trusted absolutely, no matter what the circumstances.
Your integrity is manifested in your willingness to adhere to the values you hold most dear. Always make commitment & not promises. It's easy to make promises/ commitments and hard to keep them, but if you do, every single act of integrity will make your character a little stronger. And as you improve the quality and strength of your character, every other part of your life will improve as well. (We are what we repeatedly do)
By Nilesh Gore – ng411002@rediffmail.com
http://www.brendynamics.com/gr