By Living Room Realty, March 20, 2019
I’ve been spending far too much time thinking about the word INTEGRITY lately. According to the dictionary, integrity is “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.” Put another way, the root of integrity is about doing the right thing even when it’s not acknowledged by others, or convenient for you. Not only have I been pondering how I hold myself in a place of integrity in this world, but I have also found myself whispering Michelle Obama’s quote, “When they go low, we go high!” multiple times throughout the day. (I have to whisper this mantra to myself since I want to put my ex tenant through a wood chipper for destroying my house. Fargo was so good).
I believe that integrity is integrally tied to business/relationship success. That standard list of “Don’ts” such as: don’t lie, don’t mislead, don’t conceal, don’t steal, don’t break professional ethics codes, don’t change the conditions of a contract, and so on apply. My attorney said something the other day about contracts – that contracts are the foundation for business relationships and contracting with integrity gives that foundation the strength it needs to support relationships. Seems like a no brainier – right? One would think so… But people move out of houses and trash them, contracts change mid-stream, we sometimes leave parts of ourselves behind when making decisions.
Casting that wood chipper aside, I find myself thinking about three people in my life that have an inner wholeness and sense of consistency in their character; attributes that can been seen in their actions, words, decisions and outcomes. Those people are my boyfriend, my dad and my business partner. Mind you, they have all talked me out of renting a wood chipper, so no worries there. My dad once said that Character is built one choice at a time, from the time you’re born until your last day on earth. When you give someone your WORD you must make it mean something. Your word is sometimes all you have. I tell my kids that all the time.
I think what I am learning, is that integrity is a choice.
Not all of us chose to live by it (unfortunately). I choose to practice my values rather than simply professing them. While it might be extremely difficult to be in integrity 100% of the time I sure can aspire to be. We all can.
