I’ve been in this field for a fairly long time now.  And so I’ve seen a lot of people and how they got on over time.  Recently I noticed a distinct difference between two groups. 

The first were people of strong integrity and character.  By this I mean that they strove to find solutions that fitted with their conscience and were in line with who they saw themselves and how they wanted to conduct themselves.

The second group were looking for quick results.  These are the people that want get rich quick schemes.  That want subliminal cds to make life easier.  In other words they have no solid footing.  No grounding to work from.  It’s just opportunistic.  They hop from one whim to the next.  These are the people that make self-help books bestsellers, because they buy into every big promise.

My observation is that the first group, the people of strong integrity may have difficulties.  But these are only temporary patches.  The people in the second group will have temporary high notes, but will always return to a struggle.

Because they are skipping all over the place they never place down deep roots and so they never build any momentum towards anything.  In business they have no competitive advantage, because they’re just following the crowd. 

And in life they struggle because they have no central theme.  No criteria to decide on beyond the promised result.   

Integrity is having every area that you consider being consistent with your ideal of yourself.  So the way you are at work, in your relationships and alone is all an expression of you in different contexts.

Someone from the second group of people behaves in their work in the way that they believe will bring them most reward.  Then in one relationship they behave in the way that will get them the result they want.  In another relationship they behave differently.  So in every context they act not from integrity, but from what they believe will bring them the greatest reward. 

They don’t beat to the drum of their conscience.  Instead they try to bend their conscience to the beat of what they think will bring a result they want.

It’s a recipe to drive yourself crazy.  I know.  Every failure in my life as I look back, has been where I allowed myself to be talked out of following my instincts for a more conventional appraoch. 

You have to trust yourself, but it’s beyond that.  You have to be you, regardless of the consequences..

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!