The two choices you make every day
Every day, you face the same two choices, over and over again:
I made a promise. Will I keep it?
I know what’s right. Will I do it?
When you answer ‘yes' to these questions, you’re living with integrity.
Integrity is one of those words: we all intuitively know what it means, but it is tricky to express succinctly. It's stumped scientists, too. A group of them analyzed all of the ways that integrity has been defined, finding at least five different definitions!
Eventually they settled on this definition: integrity is the alignment between your words and your actions.
It turns out that your choice to live with integrity affects your health and happiness, too.
A recent Harvard study found that people who live more moral lives actually have lower odds of depression! People who act with integrity have lower risk of lung disease, along with fewer limitations in mobility and daily activities as they aged.
To more deeply understand integrity, we can look to its origins. It is derived from the word ‘integer,’ meaning a whole number — not a fraction. If breaking promises, or saying one thing and doing another, fractures you, then integrity keeps you whole.
As you go through your day, ask yourself: Am I keeping myself whole?
Know that when you say yes, it matters. It adds up to great, positive changes in the world. I love how the poet Kenneth Koch describes its power:
AESTHETICS OF INTEGRITY
For every star in the sky
Someone is holding his ground.
To those who choose to hold your ground today, thank you for illuminating our world tonight.
