As I rolled over in bed, I thought, *I am no longer a person who hits the snooze button. The next day, the alarm rang, and I habitually hit the snooze button. Then I decided I would be the type of person who gets up when the alarm rings. When I was still hitting snooze several years later, it was apparent that I wasn’t committed to getting up earlier or the morning routine. I told myself I really wanted to get up earlier and have a morning routine that included exercise, meditation, and journaling. I used to hit the snooze alarm three or four times every morning. So, how do you break your habit of breaking your word? First, decide who you want to be. And that means you lack integrity with yourself. You have the habit of not committing to the things you claim you are committed to. If you have the habit of journaling every day, you are committed to that habit, too.īut the examples used earlier-exercising, reading, eating a healthy diet-these are not habits because you aren’t committed to them. That’s a commitment you made to yourself and kept. Maybe you have the habit of meditating daily.
Your habits are the things to which you have committed. If you say you want to develop a healthy eating habit, but you eat a massive bowl of ice cream every night after dinner, you are committed to eating ice cream-not to eating a healthy diet. If you claim you want to read before bed but watch television each night until it’s time to go to sleep, you are committed to your television watching habit. You are committed to snoozing, not exercising. Yet, you hit the snooze button four times before getting out of bed and then have no time to exercise. Let’s say you tell yourself you want to exercise every morning right after you wake up. If you have no bills to pay-and no debt-you are committed to prompt bill payment and only spending the money you possess. On the other hand, if you see a neat and tidy home, you are committed to neatness and tidiness. If you see stacks of bills you need to pay, you are committed to late bill payment. You are committed to the things you see and do. If you don’t follow through, you aren’t committed or committed enough. The other reason you give up involves your level of commitment to whatever you said you would do. Therefore, it makes sense that you would want to avoid that awful feeling-not to mention the knowledge you failed…again. Each time you say you will do something and don’t, you feel worse about yourself. You give up because you lack trust in your ability to follow through. No…instead, you think, I might as well not even bother…not happening…no way, no how. You don’t say to yourself, I’ll go exercise right now. You’re doomed to be fat and out of shape.Īnd then you look for ways to feel better. You never do what you say you’re going to do. When you realize that you didn’t do what you told yourself you would do, your mind offers a constant stream of negative self-talk.
By the end of the day, “exercise” isn’t an item you have checked off your to-do list.Īs a result, you feel lousy about yourself. But when tomorrow rolls around, you find any number of excuses not to exercise. Let’s say you tell yourself you will start exercising every day, and you will begin tomorrow. Without self-integrity, you stop believing what you tell yourself. As a result, your self-esteem and self-confidence plummet. A lack of integrity with yourself leads to many other problems.įor instance, when you tell yourself you will do something, and then you don’t keep that commitment, you lose trust in yourself. However, having integrity with yourself is just as important-maybe more so. Indeed, that’s essential if you want to be a person of integrity and have others consider this as one of your positive traits. You may think it’s most important to keep your commitments to others. You stand by those commitments.Īlso, if you are like most people, you lack integrity when keeping commitments made to yourself. If you are like most people, you have a lot of integrity when it comes to commitments you make to others. (You might be surprised at what you discover.)ĭo you keep your commitments to yourself?Ĭan people trust that you will do what you say you will do?ĭo you trust that you will do what you tell yourself you will do? Even if you feel sure that you are a person of integrity, answer them anyway. If you aren’t sure you have integrity, answer the following questions.
Keep it to yourself how to#
So, do you have integrity? How to Tell if You Have Integrity If you have integrity, you stand by your commitments.
But people who have integrity also keep their word-to others and themselves. We are told that a person who has integrity is honest and consistently adheres to strong moral and ethical principles and values. At a young age, most of us are taught the importance of integrity.
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