Integrity is Your Greatest Asset

– How to navigate safely through life's challenges –

Integrity – ask ten people what it means to them, and you’ll get ten different answers. It’s a tough word to pin down. The dictionary defines integrity as the “adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.” But whose moral and ethical principles are we talking about, and how honest is honest enough?

And just to complicate matters, not only can integrity mean different things depending on who you’re talking to, but when you’re talking to them as well.

If you’re wondering what I mean just ask a mother who has landed on hard times and has young, hungry mouths to feed what integrity means to her right now. Does she let the children starve, or is it okay to swipe that loaf of bread?

You can bet that she is going to have a markedly different view on integrity now than the version she carries around while enjoying more prosperous times - but which view is the correct view – and can integrity be shaped and molded to fit the circumstances in which we find ourselves?

Tough times almost always bring hard choices, and integrity is often kicked and beaten into submission for the sake of survival. Survival is one thing, but how does integrity fair when an opportunity arises and there is a new financial level within our grasp, or home life has become a little rocky.

Integrity for most of us is our guiding light. It’s the lighthouse on the rocky shore revealing our path through perilous waters. But sometimes. the guiding light is obscured by the fog of moral dilemma and we are forced to take a pause while we consider our next move.

Life can throw us into circumstances which cause a tug-of-war between our spiritual self with its all-encompassing view of the bigger picture, and our grasping ego stuck in the material world. It’s an energetic duality which can have us tearing our hair out in frustration about what to do next.

The struggle to maintain your integrity can be a battleground where everybody loses, or it can be an opportunity for growth for all concerned, but what matters most is that you use your integrity as a moral compass to navigate safely through all of life's challenges.