MENTAL DIET

FOUNDATION OF SUCCESS (PART 6)

“Integrity is not an outdated idea rather it is an updated version of living without regret”

-UDEME ARCHIBONG

• INTEGRITY

The bedrock of character is integrity. The very essence of character is being integrated; without it character falls short and falls out and life goes off course heading towards a destiny crash.

Integrity is the harmonic rhythm of destiny that maintains balance and sustains the notes of the symphonies of success.

“My life is an indivisible whole, and all my activities run into one another…My life is my message”.

            –MAHATMA GANDHI

Once upon a time, Mahatma Gandhi was invited to speak before the House of Commons in England.  He appeared small and weak, he held no political office and had no great wealth in tangible terms but he possessed moral power deeply rooted in integrity with an all engulfing vision.

Gandhi stood up and spoke for two hours without the help of notes and caused the hostile audience to a rousing standing ovation which lasted for minutes.

These were people who enacted laws to suppress and subdue his people; these were people who imprisoned him.

At the end of his speech a transformation had taken place in the minds of the British Statesmen; some of them even jumped up on their chairs and started stamping their feet.

After his speech reporters interviewed his secretary, Mahadev Desai, and expressed their amazement on how Gandhi astonished his audience for such a length of time without the aid of notes and caused the officials to embrace Gandhi in so much that there was no space for the reporters to interview him.

  Desai gave a revelatory lesson in integrity by his response:

“You don’t understand. You don’t understand Gandhi. You see, what he thinks is what he feels. What he feels is what he says. And what he says is what he does. What Gandhi thinks, what he feels, what he says, and what he does are all the same. He does not need notes. You and I think things, which sometimes may be different than what we feel. What we say depends on who’s listening. What we do depends on who’s watching. It is not so with him. He needs no notes”.

The above statement exemplifies the true meaning of integrity – to be integrated; congruent, whole and seamless void of duplicity. When your values, thoughts, words and actions are all on the same page you have the Ultimate Influence.

When you have the Ultimate Influence you become a Powerful force for good – That is True Power and this True Power changes people.

You don’t need to threaten, manipulate or try to control people to change. Infact, the only person you should strive to control and change is yourself because when you can control and change yourself you can inspire people to change willingly on their own accord.

The more integrated you become, the more powerful you become to influence people for positive change and situations for good.

Jesus Christ did not just have the Ultimate Influence; He is the Ultimate Influence –absolutely integrated with absolute Power for good.

Being disintegrated makes you powerless to effectively influence people and situations. When what you think, what you feel, what you say, what you do, your beliefs and values are on different pages – you become Powerless irrespective of the position you attain, your financial statement or status in the society.

The Ultimate Influence which breeds True Power causes people to willingly change positively from the inside-out and situations to change for good. That is Power!