friend of mine from Holland prefers
the mornings, for example. He gets
up at 06:00, works on a personal
project for about 2 hours (script
writing), and then goes to work. So
when he arrives at the office, he
already has some quality hours in
his pocket; he prioritizes things that
really matter to him.
track to what degree you fulfilled
your commitments and calculate
the percentage. That is your level of
integrity.
You can also track your
commitments per week, but I
recommend doing it on a daily
basis. It is easier to track and
quantify this way. I was monitoring
almost every day except for
weekends, vacations and training
days.
I recommend to anyone that first
they serve their main commitments
in life before anything else. In the
end, integrity is about making
time while your mind says there
is none. Start with commitments
and promises that you are really
passionate about, and attend to
them first before turning to the
ones that matter to you less. If you
achieve 100% with all kinds of things at the end of the
day, but didn’t spend any time on your biggest passion
You should also schedule enough
rest and vacation time to have a
balance. Integrity is not just about
execution and doing.
S.E.: And how did your integrity
levels vary at the beginning, and over time?
It wasn’t so coherent at the beginning. Some days my
integrity was around 40%, and other days it was 80%.
But I noticed that, after some weeks, my level began to
increase steadily.
or goal, then what’s the point?
Integrity works best when you set a goal that
matters to you. You should make a plan with smaller
commitments to get there and then simply fulfil each
and every one of them.
As your “integrity muscle” gains strength, it becomes
easier to fulfil your promises.
Even when you have a 9–5 job, you can create the time.
It is up to us to decide what we spend our time on. It
depends on how badly you want to achieve your goal.
S.E. I had never thought that exercising one’s
integrity would be possible. Is there anything else
we can gain from this exercise?
S.E.: So, how should we go about this? Where should
Yes, there is. For example, when my level of integrity
was high, I realised that I could achieve more with less
effort. I had more energy, sharper focus and a pleasant
sense of clarity.
we start?
What I did – and still do – is this: every morning, I make
my morning coffee, and sit down to write down 5 to
10 commitments, depending on how much time they
require.
I highly recommend that you test this yourself and see
what you are capable of achieving when you up your
level of integrity. You’ll discover just what becomes
possible if you always do what you promise.
I also realized that what you take on should be about
20% outside of your comfort zone to really grow and
build the muscle. So you have to challenge yourself a
little bit. Not too much, not too little, just a sufficient
amount to grow.
S.E: Thank you, Remco. Your approach has
genuinely been an eye-opener for me. I hope that
Mashers will also give it a go and use this technique
to advance their careers and maintain a better
balance of different aspects of their lives. Because
writing is mostly a solitary occupation, it’s very easy
for us to spend excessive amounts of time in front
of our computers, or lost deep in books. I would
also like to point out that if Mashers need further
assistance, they can contact you via email. We’ll
certainly keep in touch with you. Bye for now!
What is important here is to fulfil your promises, no
matter what. I sometimes didn’t feel like it, or it was
a difficult promise to fulfil. Nevertheless, I just did
it, because I said I would; my goal was to have 100%
integrity and fulfilment at the end of