A short while ago, I wrote about how making good decisions is what makes you a person of integrity.
See The Deciding Muscle. I had several moving experiences that allowed insight into this concept. Just like a muscle has to tear in order to grow, we can say that as we stretch, test, overload, and rip through a belief, a new one is created and expansion occurs.

Yesterday, I had a conversation with someone, again, about integrity. I took the notion to a whole other level. For me, Integrity, is a nominalization, even though it it’s a noun, wikipedia puts it really well: integrity as a concept has to do with perceived consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcome. There is action contained in integrity. Consistency requires action because in order to determine consistency,you must have more than one instance of something. Certainly we are born with the ability to be integrous, and would like to think, that to some degree, the safekeepers we call parents and teachers instilled it within us over the course of our life, but that’s a whole other article.

Anyhow, I found myself faced with the question that being born with this ability might mean it’s mostly and acquired character trait. And I used to believe that until I wrote The Deciding Muscle. But, I wanted re-test my new learnings so I took yesterday as an opportunity to put my new belief under scrutiny. So I asked myself, how do I know a person has integrity, how do I know I have integrity?

Through action.

It’s the actions that are posed, the choices that are made that allow for this definition. It’s an ongoing thing. Just like with the famous nominalization ‘relationship’, it’s not about having a relationship, it’s How do I want to be RELATING with xxx (my partner, men, women, people, peers etc in a way that allows me to feel, be, do or have etc). That’s where you get more bang for your buck. And so it is, I found with integrity. How do I want to be… How do I want to be doing, choosing, acting, that keeps this quality whole within me. The more I looked at it that way, the more it made sense. And, also, the more it allows one to strengthen this character trait within them.

Hmmm and the more I think about it, the more this applies to other character traits. Food for thought.

Thankfully,through this process I came to fully integrate the notion of nominalization. Which is really serving, because it’s such a commonality. As I said, about the famous relationship nomanilization. Once we look at who/how we want to BE vs what we want to have, we bring the creative force full throttle back into operation. Then what we want to have is merely as a result of who/how we are. If it all stems from you, then who you are being and how you are doing is where your power is. More food for thought.

Gotta run, make it an OUTSTANDING day!

Suzy-Q