Have you ever had a week where a particular lesson, theme or message cuts through all the noise and clearly lights the ‘Ah-Ha’ bulb in your mind?
This was one of those weeks for me. Over the course of cutting grass, exercising and driving I happened to select and listen to 3 different podcasts that all carried a similar, very clear and strong message that I felt compelled to share. Why? – Because it highlights one of the key things/ways of being that I value highly and recognise in successful people that I learn from. And everyone, I really mean everyone can benefit from it too.
Whatever we are trying to achieve in life, whether it be related to health, relationships, business, property investing….you name it, our results and success boils down to a few simple keystone things.
These 3 podcasts I’m referring to cut right through to what I feel is THE key thing – IT ALL COMES BACK TO INTEGRITY, with yourself that is. In other words following through on your promises and doing what you say will, even when no one is looking.
The 3 podcasts I listened to were:
*Ed Mylett interviewing Chris and Heidi Powell [see Ed Mylett Show]
*Pat Flynn interviewing James Wedmore [see Smart Passive Income]
*Ed Mylett describing the “Echo of life” [see Ed Mylett Show]
I highly suggest you look each up and listen to them thoroughly to draw out your own notes, but for now, here’s my topline takeaways from each:
#From Chris & Heidi Powell on keeping promises to yourself
-Whatever you are working towards, seek to build INTEGRITY MOMENTUM. In other words build up a practice of keeping promises to yourself, start small and simple and then roll it out to bigger things across the important areas of your life.
-The Powells remind us that. “Self belief and self love come from keeping promises to yourself”
#From James Wedmore on how to actually make progress
-People often think they need more information to achieve results but most of the time that’s not the case. The bridge between knowing something and having the results requires a shift from knowing to BEING.
-Integrity is a way of being. Integrity is simple but it’s not easy. You’re either honouring your word or you’re not. It starts with awareness ie to be aware of what and who you are giving your word to, and then make a concerted effort to follow through on that. Try it for the next few days.
-Wedmore points out that, ‘as an entrepreneur, there is no one managing you. The buck stops here. And if we don’t make our word golden, then think about the ripple effect.’
-Adopt this as a value, something that’s important to you in your life and practice it (the practice of keeping your word to yourself), it becomes a motivating and fulfilling cycle.
-Harvard Business professor, Dr. Michael Jensen who did a study on self-integrity, and he said companies that adopted self-integrity as their number one core value, saw anywhere from a two hundred to a four hundred percent increase in output without any additional increase of input.
-Here’s a fitting quote on integrity that was shared,
“Integrity is a mountain with no top. Therefore those who set off on this task must learn to enjoy climbing because there is no end to the process. And as the climb continues life continues to get better.” – Werner Erhard
Ed Mylett on Life’s Echo
-If you have not got the results you want stop and look back 60-90 days, did you stop doing the things said would? ie did your diet get worse, did you drop the exercise routine, did you not make those business development calls?
-Ed says our ‘Lives are like reading the newspapers today but we’re actually reading the headlines for 90 days ago. The news was made 90-100 days ago.” Think about that and let it sink in, you know it’s true.
-We have to continue to do the activities we say we are going to because 90 days from now we will read today’s news. That’s how it works. If you’re not eating the way you want to, or not doing the property viewings, not making the business development calls etc, you’re going to pay the price for it in 90 days.
-There’s an ECHO FOR TODAY’S BEHAVIOUR and it applies both positively and negatively
-If we don’t follow through on the things we said we were going to do, we will see the effect of that within 60-90 days.
-If we do follow through on the right things and do what we say, the payoff might be in as little as 90 days, but in success it’s often way more than that. But we have to maintain faith that the delayed benefit will come, because it will if we keep taking the right action.
-The negatives tend to come faster than the positives but we have to accept both echos to our actions/or lack of.
Circling back to why these podcasts resonated so strongly….
If you were to ask my kids what our self chosen family motto is, they would tell you this, ‘we do what we say we will”.
Of course they are kids and far from perfect, there still learning, as are we learning all the time, and practicing. It’s something that we’ll likely never get totally perfect at. We are humans, we’re always going to fall short in some way. But it’s not about that, it’s about making this a value, something that’s important to who we are and how we show up. If we they can absorb that then I’m confident it will serve them well.
I’d love to hear if this concept of self-integrity resonates with you and who will be adopting it as a core value.