Castles are built one slab of mortar at a time – “All in all, just another brick in the wall.” Character and trust are the mortar and bricks of a relationship. The former attracts the latter. If character is the foundation upon which trust is built, then actualized integrity is both the emblem and embodiment of a person. Integrity is doing the right thing at all times. It may not be the most expedient or lucrative thing, but when your moral compass isn’t corroded by the rust of disingenuous duplicity, you’ll feel your way to True North.
Know that many confuse expedient with effective. Choose to be effective, professional, courteous and empathetic. You will open the gates to trust when your word becomes your bond and your actions deliver the commitment behind the promise of the prose. You will earn personal distinction by consistently executing the fundamentals.
You will open the gates to trust when your word becomes your bond and your actions deliver the commitment behind the promise of the prose.
If consistent behavior is recognized as having value by another, emotion may begin to lower the drawbridge of the castle that houses your character. Once the drawbridge is lowered, logic can enter the “castle” of the cognitive, validating or invalidating emotional trust.
We often seek perfection first of the self and then from others. As humans, we are subject to the vulnerabilities and the foibles of being, well, human. We can’t achieve perfection, however, we can achieve different forms of happiness from forward progress. Following your compass will direct you to your True North, far from the fallow fields of the disingenuous and duplicitous. It will establish the foundation for trust, embody your character and enable you to live in the spirit of your integrity. I have found that by living this way, I till the emotional soil and plant the intellectual seed that provides for the enrichment of happiness.
Following your compass will direct you to your True North, far from the fallow fields of the disingenuous and duplicitous.
Always Forward!
