The Courage of Integrity

The Courage of Integrity
The highest courage is to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity. Choosing right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over popularity…these are the choices that measure your life. Travel the path of integrity without looking back, for there is never a wrong time to do the right thing. - Author unknown

These values have never been more true or needed in society than today. Seems like a simple credo or ethos to follow--"Do the right thing" was a popular advertising catch phrase at one point--but it really needs daily reinforcement. Leadership rises from having the value of integrity combined with the courage to not compromise in the face of adversity. These are not virtues or values that we are born with--they are learned and cultivated.

Integrity is doing the right thing, regardless of temptation.
Courage is being able to do the right thing, regardless of the cost.

Building these qualities generally happens outside of the spotlight usually by doing small things right and being recognized or rewarded for the behavior. Many times, these qualities can also be eroded or destroyed in the shadows if we allow fear to move us towards dishonest behavior.

In the aftermath now of the McGwire revelation, it struck me how easy it would be for any of us to slide into similar behavior. Doing the right thing is not always a black and white issue.

It's obvious in hindsight that McGwire was afraid his career was slipping away and he compromised his integrity to hold onto it. He had million$ and million$ of reasons why he did what he did. Doesn't make it right, but I'm not sure I would ever want to be in that situation.

We all fantasize about how we act if we were in a situation like McGwire or Derek Jeter. But if push came to shove, how many of us would have the courage and strength to handle the pressures and temptations? We all fantasize about winning the lottery and what virtuous things we would do if we won the money, but I just read a story of a man from Florida who won a $30 million lottery and his life was miserable afterward. He was hounded by friends and "newly found" relatives for money and financial aid. He struggled to not change his life very much, but he later told a relative he was thinking about disappearing to an desert island somewhere to get a break from the stress. He has not been heard from since and is presumed by authorities to be dead. I am sure his perceptions of how his life would be before winning the lottery compared to after winning were very, very different.

It seems easy to say that we would all act with the highest levels of integrity if we were placed in similar situations. We all hope that we would have the courage to maintain our values when placed in a situation that would tempt us to compromise or change them. But harder to do.

It takes a lot of courage and strength to maintain a high level of integrity in our lives.

Coaches are famous for having phrases posted in gyms and locker rooms as constant reminders for how to go about your business. I know many people that carry poems or phrases in their wallet or purse as a reminder. This poem is provides a nice framework for maintaining a high level of of personal integrity in your life. It should be required reading in the public schools, at the very least discussed and understood, if not committed to memory. Maybe I ask for too much.


If..by Rudyard Kipling

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

-----

COURAGE - He shall say: "Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. - Deuteronomy 20:3-4