Where has integrity gone?
Integrity, to me, is one of the finest qualities a person can have. These days, unfortunately, it’s also the most rare.
When we tell someone we’re going to meet them someplace, we should not only show up, but be on time. When we promise to help a friend move, rain or shine, we need to keep our word to them. And when we promise someone a job, we need to fulfill our promise to that person.
We are damaging not only good relationships, but also our soul when we simply blow people off without any communication or explanation whatsoever. Keeping our word to someone is having integrity and it should come to us naturally as well as easily.
Integrity is putting others first and ourselves second. Maybe we don’t feel like doing something we promised. That shouldn’t matter. We need to put our feelings aside, keep our committment, and show people that they matter because we all do.
July 9th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
I TOTALLY agree with everything Jeanne said. Especially, when she writes…
“Integrity is putting others first and ourselves second. Maybe we don’t feel like doing something we promised. That shouldn’t matter. We need to put our feelings aside, keep our committment, and show people that they matter because we all do.”
Keeping promises has been a real issue for me to work with lately in my own life because of one that I made a VERY long time ago to someone I’ve lost. Can’t find them now. I’ve never let it go. Some say, “Let it go John, no one cares anymore and the reason no longer exists”. While that may be true, I took an oath and swore to someone that I would always keep my promise and I always have. It harms no one (except maybe me). Okay, it DOES harm me to an extent but it’s none of anyone’s business but mine right? I was the one that made the promise and it’s up to me to keep it.
I swore an allegiance to another living breathing human being that I would never let them down and I haven’t
It could bring me a sense of closure to let the promise go. But I don’t and I won’t as long as my body can hold a breath. it’s like a Semper Fidelis thing. “Always Faithful”.
Because all you can ever be is what you say and how you back it up with your actions. At the end of the trail that’s all that really matters. It becomes the legacy of who you were. To me, breaking a promise is lying after the fact.
You might as well have just looked them in the eyes and lied. You let them go thinking they could rely on you all the while knowing that you didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to do what you said you would do.
Being a promise breaker makes you nothing more than a liar.
As far as I’m concerned, If you make a promise to another person, you keep it until the promised person releases you from it or until 15 minutes after you have taken your last breath. Whichever comes first.
July 10th, 2011 at 12:40 am
I admire your tenacity, John.
We have to stay true not only to the people we make promises and commitments to, but also to ourselves.