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Finding Balance in Integrity
By Jean McAulay
If a scientist can calculate the integrity of an ecosystem, a critic laud the integrity of a work of art and a systems analyst guard the integrity of a database, what can the word mean when applied to human beings? Actually, pretty much the same thing—wholeness, oneness, and something that is intact and uncorrupted.
A chat about integrity can quickly lead to the buzzwords you might expect in a contemporary business ethics class, but living with integrity has far greater implications than keeping your fingers out of the corporate cookie jar. It’s about making choices that lead to a complete and harmonious expression of life.
For Claudia Anrig, D.C., of Fresno, Calif., living with integrity means freedom. “Some people wrestle every day with shades of gray, maybe taking a shortcut or quick financial benefit if no one else will find out. But there is black and white when you live in integrity. It’s easier to make the right decision every time and there’s joy and freedom in doing the right thing over and over again.”
Living in integrity makes Anrig’s life easier and less complicated. “My life is congruent 24/7. If you truly own integrity as a value system, you don’t just practice it in one part of your life. Whether someone sees you before or after hours, at the practice or with your family, you will always be practicing integrity in that moment.”
Integrity is powerful because it builds on itself, says Life University president and life-long lecturer on integrity and human potential, Guy F. Riekeman, D.C. “The more consistent I am in my thoughts, words and actions, the easier it becomes to be true to myself, and the more complete I feel.”
“Living with integrity is actually in your own enlightened self interest. I build my integrity by being consistent. My actions and conversations are aligned with my thoughts and values. When I am out of integrity, my self-esteem suffers, as I constantly doubt myself. I experience inner turmoil and discord,” he says.
Still, Riekeman and Anrig both admit taking the high road doesn’t always make for the smoothest trip. “Sometimes you have to stand alone,” Anrig says. “It can be lonely to feel you have a target on your back for a period of time. But life is about making those choices, persevering and knowing there is no greater blessing than a job well done. It makes you stronger and gives you wisdom and compassion for others.”
Because integrity provides the underpinning for the responsible exercise of our rights and responsibilities as human beings, it is one of the Eight Core Proficiencies Life University integrates throughout its curricula for all majors. “Life University teaches students how to manage personal integrity and function as valued citizens within the academic, health care and larger communities,” explains Frank Ruechel, Ph.D., associate professor of history. He teaches the seminar course on integrity and citizenship in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“As a historian, I’m aware that every society man has ever established has struggled with integrity and the concept of citizenship,” Ruechel says. “Every generation struggles to maintain or sustain certain ideals and live up to them.”
“All of us need to be called to a higher standard and that comes from professors, social commentators, religious leaders and community leaders,” Ruechel says. “Ultimately, though, each individual has to make a decision to adopt integrity as his or her own standard—and that can come at a price. Often it is people of integrity who suffer the slings and arrows of public scorn for going against the grain,” Ruechel says.
“Maintaining my integrity is not always easy,” Riekeman concurs. “I may risk disapproval, unpopularity and even confrontation.”
Yet, the price for living outside of integrity is even greater. Being out of integrity, Riekeman says, means being incomplete. “Choices made with integrity respect the consistency and wholeness of you as a person and lead to personal excellence. Choices made without integrity tend to lead to guilt, fear, rationalization and ultimately, mediocrity,” he says.
“When you take the easy way out or do something you know is wrong, it leads to regret and guilt,” Anrig says. “Next, you find yourself mad at others and rationalizing your poor behavior. That can lead to just wanting to keep your head under the radar, only taking care of yourself and your own and, of course, not doing your best.”
Acting with integrity leads to a harmonious integration of the myriad parts of your personality into a meaningful whole. “Being in integrity leads to trust, joy, commitment, action, accountability, growth, empowerment and, ultimately, excellence,” Riekeman says. “The reward is self-respect, clarity and the inner peace that comes from being true to your values.”
Anrig gets down to specifics, saying, “When you are committed to providing your best service to your community as a chiropractor, your excitement and passion lead you to provide outstanding patient education and to pursue reading and conferences for your own growth. That journey brings you to personal inner excellence as well as what’s perceived by your community and colleagues as professional excellence,” she says.
“When you practice integrity, it’s not just about you and your family anymore, but way beyond to a more global level, even within your own little city. It’s always about others,” Anrig explains.
At the heart of integrity is keeping the commitments, or agreements, we make with ourselves, loved ones, colleagues, and even with institutions. For chiropractors, those agreements are often with patients, staff, the profession, colleagues, vendors and insurers, among others. Agreements with patients might include your commitment to patient education, high quality care, reasonable fees and prompt service. When you fall short of those agreements, or purposely flout them, you are out of integrity, and moving away from excellence.
Integrity is evidenced in stepping up to the responsibilities that come with rights and privileges, Riekeman says. He likes to explain the concept by sharing a conversation said to have occurred between the writer H.G. Wells and Mahatma Gandhi in which Wells requested Gandhi’s endorsement of a piece he had written on human rights. Gandhi rejected the opportunity, saying he was not committed to human rights. Astounded, Wells wanted to know why Gandhi had spent his life in social protest. For “human responsibility,” was Gandhi’s response, adding that whatever rights we enjoy should be the result of the responsibilities to which we’ve committed ourselves.
Riekeman sees a parallel with the chiropractic profession. “If, like the early pioneers of chiropractic, we are going to have the right to exist as a profession, then we must accept the responsibility to be active and involved, even in times of economic crisis. We have to step up and become members of the national and state associations that best reflect our philosophies, rather than whining about differences of opinion. We have to educate our patients and communities about chiropractic instead of complaining when people don’t understand what we do,” says Riekeman. “Every chiropractor needs to support one of the nation’s chiropractic colleges, not just gripe about decisions made by his or her alma mater. Chiropractors must also commit to becoming lifelong learners always striving to understand the body more fully and serve their patients better. Most of all, we need to develop a compelling vision for our profession that goes beyond our own individual success and short-term benefits.”
“If we can accept and honor these responsibilities, then we will not only gain the right to exist, but the right to succeed, the right to be leaders, and the right to be right. In essence, we will be in integrity,” he says.
It may have been your mom who first told you that cheaters never win. And, of course, mom turned out to be right about most things. “Ultimately, when people cheat at something, they are the ones who suffer most because they aren’t actually accomplishing what they’ve set out to achieve by their own merits,” Ruechel says.
“Internally, you’re always going to know you had some form of a compromise and you’ll reflect back later and say ‘I should have’ or ‘I shouldn’t have.’ Or, you’ll become hardened to justify what you did,” Anrig says.
“You may have to endure a little suffering or take a little longer to choose the path of integrity,” she adds, “but eventually you’ll reap what you’ve sown and then you’ll have the garden you always wanted.”
Human beings will never be perfect, Ruechel reminds us, but there is integrity in striving for a higher ideal. “It’s like what Abraham Lincoln said about the Declaration of Independence,” he explains. “The signers did not claim each ideal was already a reality. They were setting a standard for themselves and future generations to strive for.”
In immersing its students in the principles of integrity and citizenship and weaving those concepts throughout its curricula, Life University hopes to set a high standard and equip students with the skills to reach for it. “We want our students to internalize the meaning and importance of personal integrity not only so they make the ethical decisions our society should expect from health care providers, but so they enjoy the personal satisfaction, harmony and wholeness that results from the unity between words and actions,” Riekeman says.
Like the ecosystem in perfect balance, the masterpiece with neither one brushstroke too many nor one too few, or the computer system with every piece of information intact and uncorrupted, a human being in integrity is fully functional—and beautiful.
©2006 Today's Chiropractic