Top 10 Reasons to Be Ethical and Live with Integrity

Choosing to live ethically and with integrity isn't for the faint of heart.  It means making choices and dealing with consequences that choosing to lie might help you avoid, at least in the short-term.  Here are the top 10 reasons why it's worth the time and energy.

1.  It's a great way to keep life simple.  Life is complicated enough already, and it certainly seems like the trend is towards exponential complications in our society.  Living with integrity is one way to keep it simplified. You don't have to remember who you told what, or pretend to be something you're not, or to deal with consequences you'd rather avoid which...

2.  Saves you time and energy.  Fixing problems that can simply be avoided is an unfortunate waste of time and energy.  If you're up to accomplishing big stuff in the world, this side effect of living ethically and integrously is one that you are going to have to leverage in your favor.

3.  It's a small world after all.  I live in bustling Miami, rubbing elbows on a regular basis with over six million people (between Dade and Broward Counties), and yet I am still constantly surprised at the ways I meet people again after not seeing them for years.  As a trainer and a coach I've come to appreciate what a truly small world it is.  Having always strived to treat people with honesty and to live with integrity it makes it a happy surprise to see them again.  And because they're happy to see me too, it preserves my reputation in the circles of my new endeavors and I'm constantly rediscovering new warm market opportunities.

4. It keeps you from burning your bridges.  When you live this way, you're not burning any bridges.  It is a small world and you never know when you will find it useful to cross back across bridges you thought you were done with.

5.  Life is a relationship game.  Life is a team sport and the kind of team you have and the kinds of relationships you have with them is going to determine the boundaries of your success, and the level of integrity that you're living out of is going to have a direct impact on the kind of relationship that it is.

Design it wisely.

6.  Your relationship with yourself.  Whether you consciously realize it not, being ethical and living life with integrity builds your self-esteem, your self-respect and your faith and trust in yourself.

One of the most powerful tools we have for high powered living is our word.

When we can count on ourselves to keep our word with ourselves it increases
our confidence in our ability to achieve big goals, which is a wonderful way
that...

7.  It's using the Laws of Attraction.  The underlying premise of the laws of attraction is about accomplishing more with less effort.  Who wouldn't want more of that?

8.  It makes you distinctive and special.  If you're one of those people that thinks or says "But everybody's doing it!" - cutting corners, living in shades of grey, cheating on their taxes, whatever it is for you  - then this one is especially for you.

I often hear people say that in order to stay competitive they have to adopt
some of the same shady practices the competition is using.

If everybody's doing it, doesn't being the one who says "I won't" really make you stand out from the crowd?

9.  It makes you a role model.  Whether you realize it or not, people are modeling their behavior after you.  What kind of a role model do you want to be?

10. It helps to build a life worth living.  Nobody has ever laid on their death bed and longed for the opportunity to go back and do it all over so they can lie to more people, steal more stuff, and to throw the people they love under the bus just one more time.

Nor has anyone ever gone to their funeral and wished the same for them.

Living with ethics and integrity is the fundamental platform for a life worth
living.

I would never be the one to suggest that financial and personal success isn't
worth chasing, but a life of integrity lays the ground work not only for that
kind of success, but also for the personal success that will probably be the
only kind of success that will really matter in the end.