A Kick in the Attitude: An Energizing Approach to Recharge your Team, Work, and Life

Chapter 16. A Kick In the Attitude Principle #14: Always Take the High Road

The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

—Anne Frank

A minister got on the public train system to go to his office downtown. He noticed that after he bought his ticket, the cashier attendant gave him back way too much change. As the minister rode to his office, thoughts danced in his mind about all the things he could do with the extra money. Because times were tough, he thought: This is a good thing. He even justified it as a gift from God: Nobody will miss it, and plus, I am a good person. I can do something worthwhile with it.

But it continued to drive him nuts all day, to the point where he had to leave the office to return the money. When he showed up to give the money back, he said to the cashier, "Young man, I am sorry, but you gave me too much change this morning."

The young man smiled and said, "No, I didn't. Yesterday I came to visit your church, and you preached on character and integrity. I just wanted to see if you were for real!"

Character is doing what is right; integrity is good character in action. We develop a solid sense of character from our repeated actions. To create a healthy character, we need to develop honest habits by repetitively practicing what is right.

Note

The temptation to do the wrong thing will almost always present itself to you. So how do you react?

I remember walking through a hallway at a university which for some reason was full of pianos—around 20 ...