Going...Going...Gone

Ethics, honor, integrity, and fortitude do not come from education or wealth. They come from what is inside the person, the bare essence of the person, the roots of that person and what they believe.

Let’s break it down further. What is ethics? What is honesty? What is integrity?

The dictionary defines ethics as: A set of principles of right conduct, a theory or a system of moral values, the study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by a person, their moral philosophy, and the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession.

Honesty is defined as: The quality or condition of being honest; integrity, truthfulness and sincerity.

And what about integrity? It is defined as: Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code, the state of being unimpaired; soundness, the quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness.

What do these three terms mean? In plain English, ethics is when a person makes the right choices instead of wrong ones, when they stand up for what is right even if they stand alone. Let’s say that the clerk in a store gives back more money than they should have or a person finds a great deal of money. The first reaction is to say, “Hey, they made the mistake not me, so I’ll keep it,” but a person with ethics will give it back or attempt to find who it belongs to because of their inner moral conduct. Honesty is nearly the same thing and giving the money back would be the ethical and honest thing to do. Integrity follows close on the heels of these because it also involves moral decisions.

These standards may seem old fashioned and of no use in this day and age or in life experiences, but they are so very important. Even though there are many dishonest people in this world, there are many who practice these things each and every day. There are people who are not Christians or even believe in God, but who follow the codes of ethics, honesty, and integrity due to their own personal convictions. Our world could not survive were there not such people. I am not talking about perfect people because all people make mistakes. It’s what you do with mistakes once made that make the difference between an ethical and unethical person.

Fortitude is strength of mind that allows one to endure pain or adversity with courage. Fortitude stops you from throwing fits when you don’t get what you want or life tosses you a raw deal. Fortitude gets you back up on your feet and takes responsibility for your own circumstances dealing with what you must. It is not lying down and giving up or being mean to someone else because things aren’t as you wish. And, it’s not something you’re born with. It’s a choice just as integrity, honesty, and ethics are.

People without fortitude acquire sour attitudes and sculpt themselves into helpless victims. They believe other people owe then for what they feel life has dealt them. They want someone else to be responsible for them, to pay their way as if they were owed. Their hand is always out for what can be given to them, but seldom do they give to others. In general, they are lazy and unfulfilled. They have no backbone and when the going gets rough; they give up, become a martyr and quit life as if to say, “It’s not fair, so I quit.” They allow life. Each person makes choices every day that will have consequences attached to them. A person with integrity, honor, ethics, and fortitude will put the blame where it is due, most usually, upon themselves and then do something about it. That’s fortitude!