The Integrity Conundrum – One simple Method for Botching Personal Development

If someone were to say to you that the best way to achieve success in your life is to be true to who you are as an individual, would you believe them?

Do you think that it is more important to be in alignment with your own personal beliefs and values, or to just toss your own desires out the window and do what “society” thinks is best?

Most people would say that being true to ourselves is one of the most important responsibilities that human beings have. It is, in fact, one of the very pillars of our existence. Our ability to stick to our beliefs regardless of what others think is described very nicely by the word “integrity”.

Although integrity is often used synonymously as another word for “honesty,” even a basic concept such as honesty is still completely open to an individual’s personal understanding of the truths of our existence.

It is only through living up to our own level of personal integrity that we are able to move forward in life – and therein lies the problem.

Each individual person has their own 100% unique view of the world, their own beliefs about what is “right” or what is “wrong,” and their own standards of practice which drive their very existence.

However, in a society that is largely driven by the unseen concept of “them”; defined as governing bodies, law enforcement, company leadership, and even the chain of command in a single family unit, it can be very difficult indeed to always follow the path that we personally believe in.

• You need to look no further than an anguished teenager to see someone who thinks that the world is not fair and that they are somehow being persecuted against.
• Almost every company in the world has unhappy employees who believe that company policies or actions are not appropriate, effective, or even ethical.
• Law enforcement and government agencies – including military organizations – are ripe with chaos and disorder, with literally hundreds of thousands of people who are taking certain actions just because “they” said to do so.

Now, taking the 3 examples that were just given, consider what would happen if even a small percentage of those people starting putting their backs against the wall and deciding to live by the code of their own personal integrity.

Do you think that chaos and anarchy would grip the world, and a total collapse of civilization would be just around the corner? Or, do you think it is possible that by using the massive amount of knowledge and experience that the human race has garnered over the years, that society might be better off if people stopped blindly listening to “them”?

If considering such global circumstances is a bit too much to get your head around, why not break that same question down and apply it on an individual level to your own personal development?

Are you one of the people who has planted your feet and dedicated your life to doing things your way, or are you one of the people who spends most of your time listening to “them”?

• Are you happily involved in a wonderful relationship, or just as happily single and loving it, because you have chosen your mate or the single lifestyle, because that is what you wanted?
• Do you have a level of career satisfaction that brings you everything that you need because you are walking a path of your choosing, even if it may be different than the path that most people would have taken?
• Is your health and fitness up to your own personal standards and desires since you take the time to engage in what you believe are proper health practices?
• And finally, are you 100% happy with who you are when you wake up each day, and again with who you are at the end of that day,  since you are practicing personal integrity and walking your path, rather than the path that “they” want you to walk?

If you answered any of those questions with anything less than a hearty affirmative response, then one of two things is happening in your life:

1. You are walking the path of personal integrity, but you don’t see enough value in those types of things in order to do what it takes to excel in them.
2. You are “giving in” to the desires of the world around you and making sacrifices that are not in alignment with what you truly want.

Either way, you are the only person who truly knows whether or not you are living the life that you actually want to live. You are the only one who knows whether personal integrity reigns supreme in your life, or if it is just another word for honesty…