i was busy with my involvement in bringing in a speaker from USA to speak at several public events.
The speaker also conducted a 2-day Leaders' workshop to equip a small group of 25 to conduct his courses. What stood out for me was a section on Integrity.
He said that integrity is often associated with good character, being honest, etc. However, to him, having integrity simply means that the person is integrated.
When a person's beliefs, actions, words and desires are aligned, he is integrated or has integrity and has therefore put himself/herself to be in a much more effective and influential position. So if what i believe, what i do, what i say and what i desire are the same, i am effective and am less likely to be in conflict with myself and lose my cool.
The course participants were put through an exercise to list down the people we admire (historical figures, our family members, our friends, political figures, etc), and then list down single words to explain what we admire about the person. For example, i listed my mum and some of the words i used are tenacity, hardworking, resilient. The next step was to look at all the words listed for all the people we admire and circle those words that appear frequently.
The word TENACITY appears in my list many times. Errr yes, i even have marathon runners as one group of people that i admire :)
This list of frequently appeared words represents our STANDARDS of INTEGRITY - the kind of person we would like to be.
When we actively engage in pursuing these standards, we are more likely to find peace within ourselves, hence at peace with other people as well, cos we don't need their validation.
Conversely, when we are not engaged in pursuing these standards, there will be disharmony within ourselves, leading to disharmony with the people around us.
A case in point: i was at an organised run (i did 10k) this morning, but mentally and physically i was not at it. i am saturated after all the events and activities surrounding the speaker i just mentioned that i did not prepare myself adequately. First, i was nearly late for the run (long story), then at the run, my pacing was bad, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Mentally, it was all over the place, not very focused. That said, i did enjoy the route though. i did a decent 1:05 or thereabouts. In short, it could have been better. My goal this year is to do a full marathon, but work schedule has knocked me off course. It's time to get back on course...
Anyway, back to the exercise. The next step is to write down TO BE statements. For example, i want to be a marathon runner. (Have to use nouns, cannot say eg i want to be more patient, but can say i want to be a patient mother. Only example huh, i don't have being patient in my standards list, lol)
These statements serve as a guide in the choices we make in our daily lives. We constantly evaluate our choices in terms of how it is helping to move us closer to the "To Be" goals.
C.S. Lewis in an interview was asked something like "Isn't that wishful thinking on your part?". To which he responded, "No, that's thoughtful wishing".
Thus we can be purposeful in moving towards the person we want to be.
And so, i have posted. Even though my eyes are closing cos i didn't sleep well the night before and i woke up before 5am to get ready for the run. BUT, any longer without a blog entry is gonna cause more disharmony in me, LOL
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