Defining Character and Integrity for College Students
Are you a person of character? Do you have integrity?
Before you instinctively answer YES, think about the following anecdote. I ask these exact same questions to audiences of adults and students across the country every month. The results are startling.
Assume that I have 100 audience members. I ask individuals in the crowd to raise their hands if they believe they are a person of character. Immediately, 100 hands shoot up. Then I say, “Okay… keep your hand up if you are comfortable defining character for me?” At this point, something amazing happens—100 hands go down immediately. Awkward? You bet. When I inquire about integrity, I get the same results.
It is startling that people assume that they have integrity/character but have not thought deeply enough to be able to define each term with confidence. This would never happen if someone asked us about their favorite professional sports team or vacation destination. We would be able to talk for hours about these things. If we care so much about trivial matters, why don’t we care more about serious matters?
I define character as:
1. How you act when no one is looking.
2. How you act when you are around your friends.
When you are all alone, do you cheat on an exam, mislead a client in an email or fudge a number on your taxes? Each of these actions says something about your character. The places you go, the things you do and the people you associate with, also say something about your character.
Defining integrity is a bit tougher. My definition leans towards Aristotle’s framework of Virtue Ethics: compassion, courage, honesty, loyalty and patience. As well as stressing the importance of the Golden Mean—the area between the excess and deficiency—of these virtues.
People achieve integrity when they habitually strive for the golden means of each of the micro-virtues. In order to achieve integrity, we all must be more courageous, compassionate, honest, loyal, patient, etc. and do so more often—both at home with our families and in the classroom with our colleagues and customers. The good news is that achieving integrity is always within our grasp—only a few virtues away!
I encourage you to take an introspective look at the way you incorporate virtues into your own life. If you are a jerk—make a concerted effort to eliminate this deficiency and become more compassionate. If you are impatient—cut back on this excess and strive to become more patient. Virtues are developed with practice, so get to work! Then, the next time I ask you if you are a person of character, you can confidently keep your hand up while others shy away.
Corey encourages people of all ages to chase the truly important things in life such as a solid character, strong personal relationships and a sense of contentment. He is a great speaker for first year experience, leadership, character development and values clarification programming.
Check out campuspeak.com/cioccchetti to learn more about Corey.
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