I was reminded of an article I read a while back by Oprah Winfrey. She was talking about integrity in a different way. Many of us make commitments, to others; and will move heaven and earth to deliver on those commitments. What about the commitments we make to ourselves? On these many of us often slide. We don’t deliver integrity to ourselves.
Just like Oprah, I have observed this behavior in myself. Whether it was quitting the smoking habit or making 100 cold calls in a day. I have made a commitment to myself and then slipped. Or, in some cases just procrastinated. Yet, when I finally got around to keeping the commitment, my life improved. It took me 11 years on and off to quit smoking. And, when it was done I felt better, my lung capacity grew, my Blood Pressure came down I feel better! Same thing with the Cold calls. When I get them made, I often have a new relationship and my business is better.
The message here is that we all think about change and goals. We all consider ourselves men and women of integrity. Yet if we are not behaving with integrity to ourselves can we really be in integrity in the World?
Polonius from Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man”
