Lead a life of integrity

"There are seven things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Religion without sacrifice; Politics without principle; Science without humanity; Business without ethics." — Mahatma Gandhi

Integrity is a value that we should strive for in all kind of situations, from having a meal with family to a boardroom meeting. In my opinion, a person of integrity is someone who lives by strong principles and he is always standing for them. Living a life of integrity is a daily process that’s does not end until your life does. Here are some tips to develop integrity:

Look inside you

You have to create a personnel vision statement that defines clearly your beliefs and your goals; it will lead you to build your value system. When you do this, your values and your purpose will be the forefront of your mind, allowing you to make smarter decisions, which are consistent with the person that you are and the life you want.

After building your value system, you need to identify where you are not being truthful in your life, and then make a promise to fix those parts of your life. If you were unfaithful in a relationship, you should talk with your partner about it and figure out a way to avoid it in the future. If you said something that does not align with your values, you must take it back and make sure to express your opinions with honesty. That will help you to restore you integrity.

Develop good habits

First, you have to identify your bad habits. To do that, make a list of all your bad habits that your are aware of, then ask someone close to you to help you finding any other bad habits that you may miss in your first list. Once your list is complete, try to find out the effect of each habit and then deduct a good habit that have the opposite effect. Now you have a list of good habits but you need to make a plan to implement those habits. Implementing a good habit is a hard thing to do, so I suggest starting the implementation of simple habits like waking up early in the morning, exercising constantly or having a healthy meal per day.

Read also how to build a good habit.

Respect your engagements

Every day you make agreements, both with yourself and with others. At the time of making agreements, you will generally intend on keeping that agreement but in a busy life that often proves to be easier said than done. It may not seem like a big thing when you fail to keep an agreement but every time you break an agreement, you erode a little of the trust between you and the other person. To live with integrity, requires that you keep your word so that you can build trusting and healthy relationships.

One of the biggest mistakes that you can make when it comes to commitments is relying on your memory to keep track of your agreements. Instead of memory, you need a reliable system to record your commitments and the actions you need to take. That way, you do not need to remember every single commitment; you just need to remember to check your system on a regular basis.