Reflection Essay on Integrity

Danielle Shingleton Exemplification essay 10/3/10 Integrity We are presented with choices every day. Many are easy to make and cause very little stress, but some choices can be extremely difficult and have significant consequences. The difference between making the right choice or the wrong one is often determined be a persons character, which is based upon the qualities of integrity, responsibility, and honesty. Gaining an understanding of these three character traits and how to build them is critical to creating a lifetime of positive outcomes. Honesty is the quality or fact of being honest.

Finding a pen off the floor and giving it to a teacher is honesty. Not keeping the pen was respectful and honest, in order to reach self actualization and have integrity, you have to have needs met like food and water, love and care from friends and family, especially self confidence. Honesty means basing one’s actions on an internally consistent outline of principles. Depth of principles and devotion of each level to the next are key determining factors. One said to have integrity to the extent that everything they do and believe is based on the same core set of values.

While those values may change, it is their consistency with each other and with the person’s actions that determine their integrity. The concept of integrity is directly linked to responsibility. Responsibility is acknowledging that you are solely responsible for the choices in your life. Taking on a job while still in high school and maintain good grades if very possible. Accepting that you are responsible for what you choose to feel or think. Accepting that you cannot blame others for the choices you have made.

And protecting and nurturing your health and emotional well being. When a person is trustworthy, he or she can be relied upon to be honest, reliable, and loyal which means they have integrity. But its equally important to be respectful, responsible, fair, caring, and demonstrate good citizenship. Good citizenship can be viewed in many ways. Hitler viewed his actions as reliable, honest, fair, and thought he was demonstrating good citizenship by eliminating a different race. The Nazis saw Hitler as a man with integrity. We saw Hitler as a cruel unfair man without integrity.

Good character and integrity are easiest to demonstrate when facing public disapproval, but the true test comes when you can potentially get away with anything because then nothing is at stake but your own conscience. Trustworthy is very similar to truthfulness, uprightness, and honor. Truthfulness is when a person consistently tells the truth, and is honest. Honor is the equality of being honorable, and to show respect for others. These simple but powerful words are components of integrity. A person of integrity does exactly what he says and says exactly what he means.

There is no conflict between his thoughts and actions. His actions are consistent with the values he professes. According to Dr. William Manninger, A building without integrity may receive structural damage, or even collapse, in a storm. Similarly, people without integrity are blown about by the winds of misfortune and destroyed by catastrophes, for they lack the firmness, solidity, and strength of character to weather any storm. This means that integrity is one of the six essential qualities that are the key to success. The other five are sincerity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, and charity.

Integrity is about doing what is right rather than what is appropriate. Not everyone has integrity; the family life has a major impact on a person’s values and principles. When you have integrity you know it as much as everyone else around you does. Just because someone makes a few simple mistakes here and there doesn’t mean they have no integrity. Low integrity is when people get punished, they feel guilty, and lose respect from family and friends. You have a bad reputation, your actions result in problems, accidents, injuries, even death.

You also get other people into trouble, by blaming everyone else but yourself. There are benefits to having high integrity, such as; being happy and making other people happy, you have peace of mind, and no guilt feelings. You feel good or satisfied at having done the right thing. As you gain respect from family and friends, you may become an inspiration to others. A person with integrity will have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity. 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 profess but what we practice that gives us integrity. ” “A person is not given integrity. It results from the relentless pursuit of honesty at all times. ” “Living with integrity mean: Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking the truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are harmony with your personal values.

Making choices based on what you believe, and not what other believes. ” You cannot become “Integridized” in one day. In order to have integrity, you have to go through milestones in your life. No one can persuade you to become integridized. It’s all personal beliefs and doing the right thing. The majority of integrity comes from the home life. Family and friends play a major role in a person’s life. Being though the right things and to be honest and have goals and be true will have more integrity in life than anyone else. Let’s say one day you find one hundred dollars in your school.

Would you keep it, or would you hand it to the teacher? You don’t lie, and you are reliable. You can always be depended on you are trustworthy; people are able to put their trust in you. That is integrity, by not keeping the money and turning it in. That little person talking to you in the back of your head telling you turn it in is part of having integrity! According to Mark D. Rasche, in his Biblical Integrity days of praise article, “let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee. ” “Some have said that integrity can be measured by what a person does when no else is looking.

While this may be an indicator of integrity, it is not the real litmus test. According to scripture, the true gauge of a man’s integrity is his heart. The worlds evaluates a person’s integrity from hat it see’s in a man’s outward behavior. God judge’s integrity from what he sees in a man’s heart, for “every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondered the hearts”. In other words, man measure integrity from the outside, and God measure integrity from the inside. ” I truly believe integrity is not lost in America. Integrity is not found on the surface you have to dig deep within in to uncover it.

You hear all the time people saying the, “There are no men of integrity left. ” This is not true. Men and women of integrity are everywhere. Think about this, how many people pass your car, house, and your place of business each day and do not steal from it? We spend too much time focusing on people without integrity and we forget to celebrate and show gratitude to those who do what is right every day. What you focus you attention and actions on you will receive. If you search the world for examples of people failing you will find all the examples you are looking for.

The same is true for those that seek examples of integrity. If you focus your attention on discovering people that do what is right you will find integrity everywhere you look. You might not have to look very far to find what you are searching for. Chances are you will only need to look inside yourself. Yourself improvement blog, article: the most important trait of successful people! States that “a life lived with integrity-even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune is a shining star in whose light others may follow in the years to come” says author of article Denis Waitley