“The challenge of living with integrity is always in front of me.” Stephen R Covey.

That’s a quote from his ‘new’ book, taken from miscellaneous writings collated by his family and colleagues. It is called Primary Greatness, and it does contain some interesting nuggets.

It goes without saying that this website/blog is reflection of what it contains – primarily because primary greatness, and the compliance with the Three Resolutions that primary greatness is derived from, is something I desperately seek in myself. And, just as Dr C stated he had difficulty complying with his own sense of integrity on occasion, I have difficulty complying with my own – but probably a bit more often.

This afternoon I went for a one hour run, something I am pleased to say I can now do regularly (okay, once a week at the mo, but that’s pretty regular). Every step after the second mile was a reflection of my thinking that my integrity and compliance with the first two resolutions was reliant upon my not stopping. If I stopped, I wasn’t congruent. I’d fail. I didn’t want to fail, so I completed the run.

Each step, each compliant step, was exactly where Stephen Covey said the challenge is – right in front of me.

That is both the challenge and the benefit of integrity. The challenge of living in accordance with your values and beliefs, and with any laws or rules that relate to principle centred living, is constant. But it remains in front of us, in the sense that the ‘ego’ consequences any failure to comply is over if we so choose.

The principle consequences may still come to bite us on the posterior, of course. If we have broken a law that we’d normally have complied with (a minor one, of course) then punishment may still follow. That’s how principles work. But the effect on our integrity, or rather how we feel about our failure to act integrity, need only apply until the next occasion upon which it is tested – and on that occasion we can do better. And that’s how we develop and strengthen our ability to be people of character.

Off you go………..

2016’s a-comin’. Plan now to spend 2016 in compliance with The Three Resolutions, and by all means consider doing so by investing in the book, available HERE.