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171. Higher Integrity (Do What You Say You'll Do) · Impact Ready

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  Welcome to Impact Ready, a show dedicated to helping you elevate
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  your impact in the world. I'm Steph Safra, your host.
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  Let's explore the power of showing up with intention and
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  energy each day. This is for those who seek to
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  make life truly meaningful. Get ready for impact.
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  Hi team, welcome to the show. Happy New Year and I, I hope
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  this week's been restful for you and you're ready to jump into
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  new energy, new possibility in 2026.
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  I'm very excited about it. I hope you are too.
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  In this episode today, I want to talk about something that you've
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  heard about. We're going to talk about it
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  differently today, Integrity. We're going to talk about
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  integrity not in the way that you've known it.
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  I want to talk about it in a different way.
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  Oftentimes when people hear that word integrity, they think about
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  it in terms of morality. They think about it in terms of
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  ethics, what's right, what's wrong.
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  I'm a person of integrity, and that is one way to think about
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  it. But we use the word integrity in
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  another way also. We say, does that car have
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  integrity? Does that bridge have integrity?
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  When we're describing something in its ability to do what it's
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  meant to do, we say, OK, does it have structural integrity?
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  Can that bridge hold up the cars that are crossing over it?
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  And we're going to talk about integrity in this way today.
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  If I'm thinking about my sense of integrity, I'm really asking
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  the question, do I have the ability to do things that I say
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  I'm going to do? The reason I want to talk about
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  this today is because it's the new year and so many people are
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  setting intentions or goals or setting a theme for the year, as
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  Andrew Huberman posted on his account.
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  And all of that is awesome. Frankly.
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  I love all that shit. It gets me really fired up.
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  I love thinking about new energy and New year.
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  I love setting goals. But the universal joke of New
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  Year's resolutions is that they're not made to last.
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  People typically give up on their resolutions within the
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  first month of the year. I mean, even just this morning,
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  my wife and I went to the gym like we always do, and it's
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  packed and we looked at each other and we're like January
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  newbies. They're coming to the gym and I
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  hope they stay. We're both sitting there
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  thinking, we hope they stay because we know that they're
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  there for a reason, but they so often don't.
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  And that's, that's the cliche of resolutions.
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  When I think about that, I cringe.
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  Not even just because they're giving up on themselves and the
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  goal that they said, but because the goal was born out of a
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  desire. People have desires for their
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  life team. That's why they set intentions
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  and goals. They want to get healthier, they
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  want to earn more money, they want to have better
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  relationships, they want to have a more fulfilled career,
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  whatever it is. And so these resolutions or
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  goals are attempts to get closer to those dreams.
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  And when I see people let go of that, give up on the resolutions
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  before January even ends, I think to myself, God, they're
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  not getting what they really want.
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  If you talk to any coach, they'll tell you that all their
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  clients want to be able to be more productive in less time.
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  That's really common. It's obvious that's what high
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  performers do. They push themselves to get more
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  done faster. But when you add coaching into
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  the mix, you're working with coach.
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  And so that coach is often asking the client to think a
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  little differently. And one of the things we want
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  people to think about is, well, how can I get more done in less
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  time? Sure, but with more
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  satisfaction, because that's really the goal also is to have
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  a fulfilled, meaningful life. That's what it's all about.
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  Nobody wants to be a burned out shell of themselves just to
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  accomplish more in less time. And that's why we talk about
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  this. This is why we talk about
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  integrity and why we talk about through the lens of following
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  through on the things that we say that we're going to do.
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  The way to get more done in less time with more satisfaction is
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  very straightforward. It's to upgrade your integrity.
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  Jason Jaggart talks about this in his book.
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  It's called Beyond High Performance.
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  And remember, when we're talking about integrity, we're not
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  talking about morality. That's a different way of
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  looking at it. It's not about good versus bad
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  or right versus wrong. It's about workability or
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  functionality. And it begs the question, does
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  my life work for me? Do these systems that I have set
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  up in my life work for me? And if we go a little deeper,
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  what we can recognize is that the systems we set up in our
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  life, they only work when you work them.
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  If you have a goal of getting healthier and you set up a
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  system to go to the gym four times a week and you're waking
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  up at 6:30 AM so that you can get to the gym at 7 and do a 45
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  minute workout, but you've slept in for the last 10 days, that's
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  a system that does not work. And even if we have great
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  intentions, when we have low integrity, things will crumble
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  underneath us because we aren't doing the things that we say
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  we're going to do. We're not keeping the promises
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  that we've made to ourselves. We don't get to those goals or
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  those intentions because our systems aren't working because
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  we're not working them. And I see this all the time in
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  my clients and just general and general people around me.
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  I know that you do, too. Somebody says they're going to
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  do something and when you talk to them the next time, they
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  didn't do it and they probably have a litany of excuses why
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  they didn't do it. But the bottom line is it's not
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  done and they didn't follow through on what they said they
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  were going to do. That's the definition of low
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  integrity. Now I'm going to call this out.
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  It's a very human thing. I'm not judging.
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  I'm not pointing fingers because we all do it.
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  I do it too. We procrastinate, we avoid, we
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  do a bunch of other stuff that isn't really necessary, or we do
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  surface work instead of the deep work.
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  We empty the dishwasher instead of finishing the project.
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  That feels a little bit hard. I'm raising my hand because I'm
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  guilty of doing that. We avoid the difficult
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  conversation, and instead we go run errands or we do something
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  else. So we can acknowledge that we're
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  all susceptible to falling into that trap of avoidance or
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  procrastination, but we also have to acknowledge that the
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  more you do what you say you're going to do, the faster you get
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  things done. That's the equation.
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  In other words, the higher integrity you have, the more
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  productive you are in less time with greater satisfaction, the
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  thing that we all want. You remember working with groups
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  when you were in high school? I always hated group projects.
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  I was always a person who got stuck doing a lot of the work.
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  And there were always one or two people who got away with doing
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  like barely anything. And by nature of group projects,
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  everybody got the same grade. So I was always pissed with the
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  whole situation because it seems like you couldn't avoid getting
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  stuck with somebody who didn't follow through and do what they
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  said they were going to do. Have you ever been in that
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  situation? The same idea of integrity
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  applies to groups and teams. The less integrity a group of
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  people has together, meaning the less they do what they say
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  they're going to do, the longer it will take to get something
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  done. And that makes sense to us,
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  right? Think about it from your own
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  personal standpoint. How do you feel when you don't
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  do what you say you're going to do?
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  Most people feel bad. Most people feel a little bit
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  guilty. They might even feel a little
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  bit of shame. Often times we can start to make
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  excuses or blame other people. We might be gossiping about it.
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  We might get into victim mode. And all of that is kind of
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  wasted energy because it doesn't really move the needle on
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  anything. The other thing that happens
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  when we don't keep our word to ourselves is that it chips away
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  at our self-confidence. And over time, if we're
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  constantly disappointing ourselves with broken promises
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  or unfulfilled requests or lack of follow through, whatever it
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  might be, we find that we become a version of ourselves that has
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  very low self esteem and low self-confidence.
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  Let me ask you this, when people are feeling low self-confidence,
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  low self esteem, shame or guilt, do you think they're more
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  productive or less productive? I'm sure that wasn't hard to
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  answer. Less productive.
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  We don't want to be slowing ourselves down in any capacity.
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  We don't. That's not what we want as
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  humans. We like to move.
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  We like to be in motion. We like to feel success in a
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  fast way, whether it's getting the things we desire in our life
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  or in our relationships or as a leader, as a business owner.
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  We don't want to be slowing ourselves down.
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  And that's why this concept of integrity matters so much.
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  Now, we'll branch off here for a second because if you're like
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  me, I instantly think of the resistance from clients if I'm
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  talking about this or the resistance that I might feel if
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  somebody was sharing this with me.
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  And my initial response would be, wait a minute.
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  How can we expect ourselves to keep every promise that we ever
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  make to ourselves? How can we follow through in
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  every single thing that we say we're going to do?
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  Doesn't life get in the way? Aren't there some things that
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  are just out of our control, circumstances we didn't see
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  coming? And the answer is, of course,
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  yes. Yes, there are things and
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  circumstances that are going to surprise us and be out of our
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  control and get in the way. But we can make room for that
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  and still have commitment to ourselves.
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  If I ask somebody, what percent of the time are you going to
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  follow through on the things that you say you're going to do?
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  And they say to me, I don't know, probably 75%.
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  I'm going to wonder if I can trust them. 75%, OK, even saying
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  that to myself, OK, Steph, you're going to follow through
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  on 75% of the things that you say you're going to do.
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  That feels pretty wobbly to me. That feels weak.
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  And I don't even know if I could trust myself when I say
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  something like that out loud. But if I were to say to myself,
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  Steph, you're going to commit to doing 100% of the things that
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  you say you're going to do, that makes me think about things
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  differently. First of all, I trust myself a
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  lot more. It also makes me think about
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  what I'm going to say yes to and what I should be saying no to,
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  especially if I have to be 100% in my commitments.
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  It makes me take a lot more action.
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  It makes me feel a lot more thoughtful about what I put on
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  my To Do List each day. It makes me want to communicate
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  much more directly, and yet I can still hold space for the
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  fact that I can't control everything in life because I can
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  understand nuance and Gray areas.
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  I can understand that there's a little bit of yen and a little
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  bit of Yang here. One of the ways that helps me
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  think about this, and I stole this from Jason Jaggart, he says
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  to think about integrity as a volume knob rather than a light
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  switch. Meaning you don't just turn
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  integrity off and on like flipping a switch.
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  It's not all or nothing. It's much more like turning up
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  the volume. How can you turn up the volume
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  on your own integrity in your life?
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  How can you follow through on more of the things that you say
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  you're going to do? How can you amplify your impact
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  by getting more done in less time with more satisfaction?
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  That's the question of the year for me.
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  I think I mentioned to you guys in a recent podcast that my
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  mantra for this year is finish line.
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  I want to finish what I say I'm going to do.
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  I want to take action and execute this year.
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  And it's not that I wasn't doing that last year, I was, but I
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  very much want to turn up the volume on this because I
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  recognize that my integrity is the way to getting what I want.
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  Now a quick tip before we close because another question that
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  clients always ask me is how, how do I turn up the volume on
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  my integrity? How do I follow through on more
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  of the things that I say I'm going to do?
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  One of the best ways to do this is to write it down.
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  Write stuff down. Don't just let it live in your
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  head. I recently had a client who told
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  me I didn't even have a financial goal this year.
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  I never wrote anything down. I just thought about it a couple
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  times and guess what? He didn't meet his financial
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  goal because it never lived outside of that space between
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  his ears. And guess what?
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  A lot of stuff gets lost up in there.
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  We forget things. There's so much information
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  coming into our brains. If we have it bouncing around in
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  our brains and we're relying on that to be our motivator, guys,
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  it's going to get lost. So write down the things that
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  you say you're going to do. Write down your intentions, the
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  goals. Store your word outside of your
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  head. That way you can see it, other
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  people can see it, and it doesn't get forgotten or lost.
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  So that's my challenge to you this week is to think about how
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  can I turn up the volume on my integrity and how can I write
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  some of this stuff down so that it lives outside of my head and
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  in the real world. I hope that this conversation
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  feels energizing for you. I know you have some big desires
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  and goals for your life and I want to see you bring them into
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  reality. I've I've got your back on this
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  podcast. I'm here to support you.
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  So here's the higher integrity this year.
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  Thank you for listening to the show.
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  And as always, team, thank you for being ready to Impact.
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  Thanks for listening to Impact Ready.
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  I hope today's episode inspired you to own your impact and
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  recognize that you are powerful. By elevating our energy and
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  awareness, we can create exponential change in this life.
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  If you enjoyed today's insights, share them with a friend and
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  subscribe to the show for more. I truly appreciate you.
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  Thanks again for being here.