Many a times in life we come across a situation where the heart says one thing and the mind says another obviously over powering the former. It is not always that we listen to our heart. We tend to get carried away by what the mind says and we fail to explore what the heart says .The human tendency is to justify what we have done be it right or wrong. As if right and wrong were convertible terms dependent on majority opinion. What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient.
The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out. Integrity is a value. It is your choice of values and resolution to live by those values that form your character and personality. And it is integrity that enhances all your other values. The quality of person you are is determined by how well you live up to the values that are most important to you. Integrity is the quality that locks in your values and causes you to live consistent with them. You inevitably attract into your life the people and circumstances that are in harmony with your dominant thoughts and values. The person of integrity lives in a fragile balance between some traits like arrogace,rigidity capriciousness, weakness of will, self deception, self-ignorance and indifference. It is not that integrity stands as a mean between the vices and traits mentioned above but a person with integrity knows how to balance them.
Life is a journey of integrity. If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. Integrity is what we do, what we say, and what we say we do. It is the essence of everything successful. It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity. Never separate the life you live from the words you speak. Your integrity is manifested in your willingness to adhere to the values that are most important to you. It's easy to make promises but often very hard to keep them. But every time you keep a promise that you've made, it is an act of integrity, which in turn strengthens your character. Integrity is not a conditional word that changes like weather. It is an image, a reflection of your own inner self.
One who tries to hide his shortcomings and follies is not fit to walk the highway of truth. Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them. Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good .A heart needs only its own voice to do what is right and the time is always right to do what is right.
Don't try to be different. Just be good. To be good is different enough. Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of values. Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity. As John Webster said “Integrity of life is fame's best friend, which nobly, beyond death, shall crown in the end.”
