This is another article focused on my 2017 experience.
The first of these was a first cut at a review, the second article was much more substantial in terms of a complete retrospective. and now I am turning towards my 2017 integrity report. This was directly inspired by a series of reports authored by James Clear – located here. I’m giving him credit for the format and for the inspiration to get a bit more transparent on this topic.
However, before I begin – a bit of a prelude.
The Integrity Report Prelude…
I spent a substantial amount of time and financial resource last year focusing on self development across a number of DOLs. One of the questions I sought to answer was
what truly energizes me and motivates me?
Well, I’ve arrived at a number of answers spanning multiple areas of my life. I’ve also landed on some core truths about myself that are non negotiable – chief among the ‘discoveries’ that kept on getting repeated as a waded through a number of conversations and assessments was this:
Demonstrating integrity is an absolutely critical element that is true across all endeavors in my life.
One of the core operating principles from my own EAF for myself is:
Integrity – Lead with integrity first.
I value integrity, meaningful relationships, and legacy above other currencies.
This is taken from Taylor Pearson’s site, it is his #33, for me it is my #1. His operating principle was inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk.
I completely identify with his operating principle in my guts. I have multiple third party assessments from this past year that landed on the importance of this operating principle for myself as well.
In looking back over the parts of my life where things were dominated by friction and let’s just call it what it was – shit – I have been able to isolate the issues, nearly always, down to a lack of integrity.
Many times, it was my own lack of integrity.
To myself.
To my faith.
To my family.
Many other times it was a lack of integrity from someone involved in my life that I unintentionally allowed or even worse – enabled.
The dissonance that was between my guts and what I acted out was incredibly stressful, draining, and complete weakness on my part. I knew that I was incredibly attracted to people in my life that were ‘integrity first’ as it was something I aspired to become across my life. Nearly all of my bosses, and all that I still feel connected to are all about integrity. Three of my closest and most influential mentors (outside of my family) are synonymous with the word. Clearly, I’ve got a weird attraction and fascination with this principle.
So how to destroy the dissonance, the stress, the energy drain, and replace it with flow, abundance, peace, and strength?
The first step was realizing that the script I had been following was incongruent with the guts of my integrity.
The second step was attacking that sense of friction and of anxiousness that results from not living in accordance to your own set of truths – spanning all facets of my life – inclusive of those inner facing DOLs and outwardly obvious DOLs.
The results are already speaking for themselves, and I can say that compromising on this core truth is not something that I’m wired for. Those that know me really well, know that WYSIWYG is not a bullshit acronym for a Tinder profile, rather it is how I operate as jarring as that is for some that spend time with me – it is the truth. What you see is what you get.
Now onto the 2017 Integrity Report.
The Actual Report Already…
So having given credit to James Clear earlier, I will answer the questions he posits in his annual Integrity Review.
Three main questions to be answered:
- What are the core values that drive my life? (i’m taking away the split that is in his question – life is life across 13 DOLs)
- How am I living and working with integrity right now?
- How can I set a higher standard in the future?
What are the core values that drive my life?
Well if you are a member of this community – you know that this is step 2 of the EAF. I am FIRED UP about having the answer to this question. I have the answer for myself and for my family that I lead. I will share thoughts on how many of the concepts that have been individuated thus far – can also be applied to the teams in your life, family being an exceptionally important team.
My primary core values are listed below – I do have a slew of secondary core values that I will not be posting here. This is not a bullshit list. If I ever meet you, and we get to know each other a bit – you’ll realize this is legit. I can already imagine the texts and calls about this part of the post from those closest…
Focusing on those truths as my core values has been incredibly freeing set of conversations, and as I have altered this list over time – it becomes ever more true, as these are what I am aspiring to every day.
- Integrity – Lead with integrity first. I value integrity, meaningful relationships, and legacy above other currencies. (Inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk)
- Consistent – Be coherent and consistent – what you see is what you get.
- Family & Selfishness – I am selfishly prioritizing myself in the spirit of being the best for my boys and for those that are ‘with me’ as related by blood or by spirt. Those that are on the ‘with me’ list know what this means.
- Blessed & Faith – Faith is the greatest gift. God is protecting me and has blessed those ‘with me’ / closest to me as well.
- Intention & Energy – Everything/everyone responds to my energy both positive and negative. I need to project it intentionally and with daily discipline.
- Efficiency & Urgency – I get off on being efficient and doing more in less time and with less stress. I operate with urgency. I understand that I have a limited time on Earth and every second has an opportunity cost.
How to land on these values is covered in this prior post.
How am I living and working with integrity right now?
My word – I have only recently learned the true power and creative force behind words. In the past, I would nail the big commits that I made through whatever means necessary, however the daily to do’s would tend to suffer – particularly as my level of activity/busy ness rose. Dissonance. Instead of continuing this trend of incongruence – I’ve promised myself to sparingly give my word and commitment on actions. I am increasingly mindful of the moment of commitment, and the invocation that takes place once a commitment has been verbalized. This includes those promises to myself. I’ve found as I have reduced my casual promise behavior, my stress level has continued to dwindle. I believe this will only increase my level of happiness, and the reliance that others can find in my word will continue to go up. This is a focus across all areas of my life, as I will flat out tell you ‘no’ if you attempt to wedge something in that I cannot commit to. No questions asked anymore.
Self Forgiveness – I am my own worst critic, way worse than my worst enemy. As focused as I am on my operating principles and this focus on integrity – I am also sympathetic to the fact that this is a journey. Self loathing is a bitch, and I see so many unconsciously killing themselves with it. Not me, not anymore. I know I am an imperfect guy that has way more to learn than what I’ve unleashed as truth and knowledge. So for those times when I messed up on my promises and commitments, I take stock and see it for what it is. Without judgement. I take those moments as data points, and incorporate the learning into winning next time. Bruce Lee inspired on this point.
Increasing Transparency – This online project, and continuing to follow through in a genuine manner – even if it is incredibly weird sometimes thinking that this shit is hanging on the internet for possible colleagues, college buds, and others that could take this sort of transparency any number of ways than the manner in which it is offered. Well I stopped giving a fuck a long time ago. It took a little inspiration one night over a beer with a someone very special to me, but the kick in the ass to bring the ‘who gives a shit’ attitude was delivered and the project was online within a couple days.
How can I set a higher standard in the future?
Daily Mindfulness – It is going to be a daily habit of mindfulness aimed at living out my word. There is power in words, and even more in actions. I said to someone a few years ago, during an especially important conversation at time of great upheaval – ‘Don’t judge me by my words. Judge me by my actions.’ That conversation is constantly ringing in my inner world – at least daily, and I evaluate how I’m doing against that view.
Surrounded by Integrity – Continue to build relationships with those in my life, across all DOLS, with those that share the same appreciation for integrity and to withdraw from situations where there is a fundamental disconnect with regards to integrity. I have identified a number of areas of focus in my life where I’ll be enriching and reducing / eliminating involvement accordingly.
Helping Others – My hope is that by sharing some of this thinking and some of the approaches – it will reduce the friction that so many unconsciously bear in their lives as they live an unexamined life that is typically incongruent with their inner truths. I’ve attempted to share the feeling of being freed and of being unleashed to realize my own potential as a result of this arrival on integrity being core to crushing the stress and friction that used to dominate my existence across many DOLs. The ability to breath deeply and peacefully knowing that you are doing your best at being you is truly a blessing. In the future months, I’ll be doing more than sharing a few posts to help the community.
In closing – this post was among the easiest to let loose that I have done thus far. When I found this format from James Clear – I was electric over the idea of writing this up. I expect this to be an annual tradition for this project, much like his approach. Perhaps there is a check in or two along the way in the next year, as I have a number of things in play to juice the level of integrity in my life, and as I knock those off – perhaps I’ll share the process or just the outcomes. This exercise has also triggered another annual report that I will be authoring – its focus will be on energy.
As much time as I have spent on codifying the truths inherent within the Energy and Action Framework for myself – I have spent even more cycles on my energy and on the concept of energy in general. I’ll be sharing more down the line on this.
