Being in Integrity

I asked my students last week if they knew what "integrity" meant. It did not shock me that they weren't quite sure what it was. How could they? In our world today you don't see a lot of examples of it. In fact you see the opposite in most of the things that we view like, television shows, news broadcasts, news papers, and such.


I ended up giving my students an example of a situation that had happened to me where I could have chosen to be in integrity or out of it. I had accidentally backed into a friends car and dented the bumper and broke the tail light out.

I could have told her that someone else had done it, and removed myself from the responsibility of having to get it fixed. After all money is tight, and it would have made things much easier on me than having to pay a couple of hundred dollars to get it repaired.

I chose to be in integrity and tell her the truth. Not telling her the truth would have saved me money, but would have taken some of my self respect. I would not have felt good about myself if I had not taken responsibility for what I had done.

There are many times in my past where I had been out of integrity. I still feel bad about those situations even thought they happened years ago. They still haunt me. I can not change my past, but I can move forward into my future with integrity in all that I do.

It has taken me years to build up my self respect, and I intend to honor that with staying in integrity. It is a healthier choice for my health and well being.

If you have areas in your life where you have been out of integrity, step up and take responsibility for your self. Your self respect is very important to your quality of life. If you do not respect yourself, who will?


We all have been out of integrity in our lives. Some times it might be something that might not seem very significant, but every time you get out of integrity with your self, you take away a little bit of your self respect and self esteem.

As I told my students, it is not as much about the other person or persons that you were out of integrity with, as it is about you. Being the best you can be (see four agreements blog) is about you. It is about you feeling good about yourself so that you can have inner peace. When we are out of integrity, inner peace is hard to find.

So the next time you find yourself in a situation where you could get out of being responsible for your actions, think again about the consequences to yourself. You might not have to own up to something in that moment, but you could pay for it for a long time by losing some self respect. It just is not worth it!


Till Tomorrow,
Queenie