Integrity, as an act, requires consistency. If on a particular day, I decide that I would be a person with integrity, and work towards it and then expect others around me to get it, it is highly unlikely that they would – even if they’re the closest ones around me. We’ve built an image (a story about us) over a period of time, and they would have always known us by that image.
We do this too with respect to others – all the time. That is how we judge and evaluate an individual that we come across. We label them as this is a person who is chill and happy go lucky, this one’s always serious, she’s a punctual and a responsible one, he has high ethical standards, this one has no values, she’s funny and so on and so forth. This image is built over a period of time. With each action of ours, having that commonality to the previous actions, one reinforces an identity with which they define us. Since integrity is also an individual’s action, the same holds true when it comes to it.
When I’m choosing to be consistent with my way of being, it is an ongoing process. Even when an image builds, and people around me start recognising that I’m someone who is in integrity, I still have to choose to be so in each moment. There is a slowness to the entire process of being in integrity. But surely there is a sense of wholeness and satisfaction internally when we’re in integrity, mindfully.
There is a slowness to the entire process of being in integrity. But surely there is a sense of wholeness and satisfaction internally when we’re in integrity, mindfully.
Remember that one difficult task or a painstaking assignment that you said you will do and did it with your utmost presence and involvement despite all the hurdles and challenges. How did you feel on completing that? (Satisfied and Complete); Did you do it for any appreciation or acknowledgement? (No); Did you do it just without consideration of any external factor, but only to cherish the moment? (Yes). If your answers to the previous questions is similar to the ones in the bracket, then that night you probably slept like a baby – free and experiencing wholeness. Integrity is in being involved, cherishing each moment as it comes. And, such actions will make us aware and present to the slowness in integrity.
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