Credit: Paramount Pictures
Gumptionable is a combination of conventional gumption with Gumption and means being 100% personally responsible for your actions and interactions. So today, let’s examine the 1st of the 7 principles of being gumptionable more closely:
Use common sense to drive Integrity
Common sense will simply be defined as sound practical judgment.
From the original post on being gumptionable, here is how I described using common sense to drive integrity:
If we define integrity in its simplest form, then guiding it is as simple as the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not just an adage, the Golden Rule is the oldest ‘common sense’ principle we have.
Here are 5 ways to use common sense to drive integrity in either your life or at work:
1. Let Actions Be Your Loudest Voice
Demonstrate … don’t just talk. Be more matter-of-fact when you speak … avoid bragging. Ultimately people will judge you on your actions.
Remember the scene from Forrest Gump when Forrest was playing ping-pong? He simply said, “[the Army] decided the best way for me to fight communists was to play ping-pong. So I was in the Special Services, traveling around the country cheering up all them wounded veterans and showing them how to play” While Forrest gave this soft-spoken and simple explanation, the scenes showed him hitting multiple balls with both hands, reaching below the table to hit balls back, and finally volleying with a Chinese champion at an unimaginable and pounding pace.
Are you matter-of-fact when you speak?
Do you let your actions speak loudest?
2. Under-Promise, then Over-Deliver
When you use common sense in making promises, you’ll tend to only promise that which you know you are capable of delivering. Then, delivering what was promised and even over-delivering becomes easy. When you over-deliver, you not only are remembered, you?ll be well paid and in demand.
Think how Forrest Gump routinely understated his achievements when he talked with strangers and described his life. The remarkableness of his achievements was only revealed when we saw what he did … not by the words he used.
Do you use common sense when making promises?
Do you regularly over-deliver?
3. Make Your Own Choices
Our integrity suffers when we allow others to overly influence us. It’s easy to do as we like to please others, be helpful, and not let them down … especially when it’s your boss or your spouse. The problem arises when we commit without being committed. You will be disappointed the minute you make the commitment, and the other person will be disappointed sometime in the future.
Forrest’s simple phrase “A promise is a promise” underscores the importance of the commitments you make. Consider the disappointment someone will experience when you choose not to promise versus the disappointment they’ll have when you break that promise. Also, you’ll experience more freedom with promises not made.
How good are you at not making promises that you don’t want to make?
4. Procrastination
So you’ve made a promise you fully intend to keep. But the deadline is approaching and you haven’t started. You are wasting time … you’re a procrastinator. Sound familiar?
Heck, I typically don’t get my blogs done until the last minute myself. Common sense tells me to finish it well in advance. It creates less stress. It allows for deeper thought and a potentially better product. It doesn’t stress the editor and webmaster. It’s just common sense! And yet we need deadlines. Boundaries.
Are you a procrastinator like me?
5. Turn the Other Cheek
Harboring resentment, jealousy, anger, and disappointment ultimately hurts you more than the other guy. When wronged, acknowledge it and move on. I know, I know … easier said than done. But the problem with holding on to negative feelings is they destroy your future, your productivity, and your integrity.
When Forrest was a boy and the bad dudes threw rocks at him, he had every reason to be resentful and angry. But by running, he not only avoided physical harm, he released his destructive negative energies. And, something good came from Forrest’s running. Nothing good comes from resentment.
Do you hold on to negative feelings?
Are negative feelings you?re currently holding limiting your freedom?
The 16th principle in Napoleon Hill’s Law of Success is The Golden Rule. He stresses the need to do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you if the roles were reversed. He believed that all of your actions and thoughts do come back to you, for better or worse. It’s not enough to believe in this philosophy, you must apply it.
The goal in using common sense to drive integrity is simple.
You want to be a person of integrity. You want to keep your promises. Using a little common sense can help you be that person.
Are you using common sense to drive your integrity?
Next Blog Title: Stories of Gumption – Lyn Hanush
Next Blog Date: February 10, 2011