Integrity: What I Believe

There are three things I most believe in that direct everything I do and everything I am.

Belief I

I believe God is the creator of heaven and earth and I believe Jesus Christ is my personal savior. Which is a good thing because I struggle at life sometimes. But every time I make a mistake, I know He's got my back. This belief also allows me to have a self-worth that isn't based on my behavior or other people's opinions or in comparison with my peers or society. My self-worth is worth more than I will ever be able to comprehend (so is yours by the way.)

Belief II

I believe my most important task in life is to be a great husband. Three reasons why...

1. My wife is my best friend and I want to keep her loved and happy! It is a phenomenal place to be when you know that your actions every day, big and small, are bringing joy to your best friend. I also have the benefit of having a strong mental anchor that keeps me focused on how lucky I am to have the most beautiful woman in the world (she's pretty cute on the outside, too) as my best friend. I still vividly remember the first time I met Ashley in January of 1997 and I still remember thinking, "Whoever marries this gal is going to be one lucky guy."
2. I believe that being the best husband I can be is the most important thing I can do to be the best father I can be. This means that of all the things I need to do to be a great father, and that list is long, doing what I need to do to be a great husband will have the greatest impact on my daughters. I want them to see and feel and know what true love and commitment to another person looks like.
3. I believe many of society's ills would be closer to being solved if we had a wide-spread epidemic of fathers being better fathers. Especially the fathers of our young boys. Because if we don't solve that problem, helping the fathers of boys be great fathers, then we have a self-perpetuating problem that nothing else will wholly fix.
   

Belief III

I believe everyone is born with what it basically takes to be a positive leader. We were all born with ears to listen, not just hear; mouths to build others up, not just tear others down; eyes to see the good, not just the bad; minds to learn, not just to waste; and hearts to care, not just to beat. The great leadership question of our time is,"Are leaders born or made?" I believe leaders are born and then they are un-made. Our ability to listen, to build others up, to see the good, to learn and to care become filtered and weakened and neglected and over time the leader in us becomes un-made. We teach each other not to be leaders by criticizing and demoralizing those who step away from the pack and risk boldly. We have also created too many very attractive reasons to be a negative leader.

• At home - We can get a $99 divorce and have half of our adult peers to lean on for reasons why it was acceptable and prudent to not follow-through on the most important commitment we will ever make.
• At school - We can cheat on our tests and still get the grades we need because we are mainly tested on whether or not we got the answer right on paper instead of being tested on how we went about answering the question.
• At work - We can lie, cheat and steal our way to the highest rung on the "success ladder" and no one is there to boldly convince us that we aren't truly a success because our ladder is leaning on a wall of dishonesty, deceit and moral bankruptcy.

These three beliefs operate as magnets for how the ten PLI Essentials manifest themselves in my life. They impact greatly my Vision, my Integrity, my Innovativeness, my Wise Judgment, my Service-Mindedness, my Goal Processing, my Skill Assessment, my Emotional Maturity, my ability to Foster Relationships and my Masterful Communication. What impacts yours?

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