Life Would Be Easier If ...

By Eileen Lindner, brown belt

To me, integrity means being a person of honor, worthy of trust and willing to do the right thing.  To have integrity, you must strive to be honorable in all interactions with others.  Acting out of good faith, with the best intentions, helps you to live with integrity.

Merriam Webster online defines integrity as: “1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : INCORRUPTIBILITY 2 : an unimpaired condition : SOUNDNESS 3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : COMPLETENESS .”  Therefore, to have integrity, you must be true to your convictions, true to yourself, and at peace with yourself.  Acting with integrity in Taekwondo situations means we stay on the side of right, defend those who need help, and control ourselves.

Life would be much simpler if everyone acted with integrity, if all people were trustworthy and could be relied upon to be honest and follow through on promises.  Life isn’t that easy; but we can help by always treating others with respect and honesty.  I think everyday life in general should be approached with integrity; but specifically in work or school situations, coworkers and students with integrity will do well.  They will achieve higher goals since they are not only looking out for themselves; but acting in accord with their convictions.

A simple example of integrity in MSK Taekwondo would be during poomse practice.  Lately I'
ve been confusing several poomses and overlapping them.  It would be easy to say that I understand and am fine with them; but integrity requires me to admit my mistakes and ask for help.  Even when no one notices my mistake, if asked, I own up to it and improve my concentration to improve my poomse.  Without integrity, I could just go through the motions, watch the others around me and fake it.  That cheats everyone, most especially myself.

Since I am at the CTI to learn and improve, the best way for me to do that is to act with integrity, pay attention, give my whole effort, and learn from my mistakes and confusion.

Sources:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrity