Likewise, our philosophy defines who we are and who we are defines our philosophy. It\u2019s a given if you lack honor, integrity, compassion, and respect you\u2019re probably a jerk. A jerk cannot just arbitrarily start to be a person of integrity. You cannot, because of guilt felt after an action or deed, decide on Saturday to be a person of honor and compassion starting at sunrise on Sunday on your way to Church. As stated by my friend who is much smarter than I, \u201c\u2026the potential for failure is prevalent<\/em>.\u201d You are destined to fail and repeated failure will eventually lead you to the belief that you being a person of worth is beyond your capabilities and you\u2019ll go back to being whatever caliber of jerk you were the day before\u2014perhaps worse, because now any lingering doubt about whether or not you were a jerk to begin with has been removed and now you are an angry jerk.<\/p>\n However, the scenario played out in the last paragraph may not be all together true\u2014which means there\u2019s hope for you yet. You can be a person of integrity, honor, compassion and respect, regardless of your caliber of jerk-hood; you just need a strong desire and you need to cater the approach. These traits are developed and applied, not applied fully developed. Let me lead you down a rabbit; bear with me for just a minute. I consider myself a good person, but I also consider myself a failure. I am my own worst critic. People tell me I\u2019m a good person, but they don\u2019t know my secrets. I know that God forgives and I will be eternally grateful for that; and I use the term \u201ceternally\u201d in the most literal of terms. But I have a hard time forgiving myself for past actions. People say, \u201cbut you should forgive yourself\u201d because these were done long ago (some not so long ago) and you have been forgiven and hanging on to them will only drag you down. I think the guilt helps me when a desire (or temptation if you will) comes along and prods me to do or say something that defy honor, integrity, compassion or respect. I remember the guilt and often (but sadly not always) the temptation goes away. I remember the feeling I have when I approach God and ask, \u201cLord, can you forgive me just one more time?\u201d Remembering the guilt is a tool, it\u2019s helpful to me.<\/p>\n OK, let\u2019s get back on track. You can adopt a desire to do and say the right thing. You can adopt a desire to be a better person. Will you, after accepting this new you, always be a person of honor, integrity, so one and so forth? No. You will fail, but with each successful attempt the failures will dissipate, not completely but a reduction in failure is as good as a win. Will you eventually, after years of trying, get to a point where you will never fail? No. There will always be failures. However, with each failure you can, if you have the foresight to do so, learn a lesson that will come in handy the next time that option presents itself. I might add here if you are at a point in your life where you feel you have mastered the traits of honor, integrity, so on and so forth, then you may not possess any of them; pride trumps them all. Just sayin\u2019.<\/p>\n In full disclosure I must say this will be the hardest thing you will ever do. It is something you will have to \u201cwant\u201d with every once of energy. Start small, maybe yield the right of way in traffic and let someone in. Of course I must also say, if this is too hard for you, there is an easier way; just be a jerk your whole life and be remembered as such. Like Bill says, \u201c\u2026what motivates us will define us.\u201d What defines us is who we are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Traits like honor, integrity, compassion, and respect are not traits you, all of a sudden, decide to accept as personal traits on a particular day and go forth from that point on as a person worthy of being identified as owning these traits. These traits are developed and honed over time through actions and deeds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[22,26,29,32,39,40,58,66],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-thoughts","tag-blogging","tag-commitment","tag-dedication","tag-endurance","tag-honor","tag-integrity","tag-role-model","tag-wisdom"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"jerk\"](\"https:\/\/stevebriscoe.wordpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/jerk.png\")
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