Risky business: The loss of integrity versus the loss of one’s job
One day while I was working as a computer programmer, one of our managers suddenly went missing. Actually, he had been fired for lack of integrity: evidently he had not stood strong enough for the interests of the company. I liked him, but he was lacking in business integrity. How is our personal integrity?
Living a life of personal integrity is a personal challenge.
Because it is the expression of our own lifestyles, personal integrity has a liberating influence on our personalities. It is a way of impressing on our lives our own handwritten signature.
What is integrity? Latin = integritas English = wholeness, soundness, untouched, entire
Integrity means to act on one's own understanding of truth relatively independent of the opinions of others. You have learned to trust your own life experiences over the thoughts and actions of others even when they are in the majority. Your own values give you a quality of life and inner freedom with a certainty of doing the right thing and being on the right track, regardless of the cost.
You see yourself and your surroundings with your eyes wide open
You assess the norms and conventions of society, you don’t just accept any theory the media dishes up for you, but test them critically; and you don’t buy what is available at the mall, even if everyone else does.
This kind of an attitude can spell danger for people who are motivated by fear rather than driven by love and reasonable goals.
To travel this path together requires much thought and the free exchange of ideas
So for people of integrity, values are very important. For example, my most important values are contained in the terms “love” and “ truth”. Other terms that are closely associated with these are freedom, family, patience, helpfulness, empathy, constructive criticism, social competency, etc. What are your values?
Sometimes people of high integrity may find themselves alone – and yet, not lonely!
What do you think about this subject? We will continue next week. I hope to see you again then :-)
