5 Daily Goals to Reap Rewards: #4, Integrity

I read the other day in my local paper, a letter to the editor. This has become one of my favorite parts of the paper. I think you get a real sense of the wide spectrum of thought from the community by reading these letters. Anyway, I read one last week that has stuck with me. It was all about integrity.

A gentleman told the story of shopping at his local WalMart. After making his purchase at the automated check-out stand, he noticed there was a problem with his change. He was supposed to have received 3 dollar bills and some loose change. Instead, he received 3, five dollar bills and some loose change. When he realized the mistake that had been made, he went to the manager in charge of overseeing the machines. He followed the young person back to the machine; it was opened up, and they discovered that the wrong dollar denomination was put into the $1.00 slot. Therefore, five dollar bills had been dispensing, rather than one dollar bills, all day long!

It made me wonder: what a rare thing integrity is these days. It took one person, well into the afternoon to bring to the store's attention a very serious problem with the store's cash machine. How many folks walked out the doors, with 5 times more change than they were due? Maybe some didn't pay attention. Maybe that particular machine wasn't used that much that day. But maybe some people thought,"WalMart is a multi-billion dollar mega corporation, and they won't miss a few bucks," or, "I deserve this money because of the hard run of luck I've had lately," or worse, "I just don't care."

How many times a day do you have the opportunity to do the right thing, even though perhaps no one will know the difference? If you make integrity, one of your goals, one of your daily steps along your journey, people can't help but see you as different, as apart from the crowd, as special. You'll be someone who customers rely on to guide them through difficult times; you'll be someone in special relationship with them, in the good times and the bad. Your daily steps of integrity will create a large and faithful following, and a great reward on the journey.