“A good conscience is a continual Christmas.”

– Benjamin Franklin

During this election season you hear many things about the candidates.  You hear that they are conservative or liberal, honest or dishonest, insider or outsider, electable or unelectable.  What I am not hearing is if they are honorable.  I know that they assume you just know that, but what is wrong with talking about honor.  There are those who think it is old fashion and no longer relevant to talk about people having honor.  The sad part is, when we see honor as unimportant we lower the standard of everything else.  It is as C.S. Lewis said, “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.  We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our mist.”

Success-Minded People know that there is no higher calling than to be a person of honor.  Each of us is given the task – no matter what you do or for whom you do it – to be honorable in all our dealings.  Henry Ward Beecher said “Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else except of you.  Never excuse yourself.”  Success-Minded People take honor seriously both in themselves and in others, especially their leaders.  On honor, all other matters of character rest.

                So what is honor?  Let’s get our answer from a group that lives by it, the U. S. Army.  The U.S. Army Leadership Field Manual defines honor this way:  “Honor provides the moral compass for character and personal conduct in the Army.  Though many people struggle to define the term, most recognize instinctively those with a keen sense of right and wrong, those who live such that their words and deeds are above reproach.  The expression ‘Honorable Person’ therefore, refers to both character traits individuals actually possess and the fact that the community recognizes and respects them.”  Read this over again and allow it to sink in.  This is powerful stuff!

As with being trustworthy, it is more important to be an honorable person than to find others who are.  How are you affecting your family, your church, your place of work or community?  Being an honorable person is not something you tell people you are.  In fact, those who have honor never mention it to others; they show that they are honorable.  People will recognize an honorable person faster then they will recognize any other quality in that person.

                Honor is not born into a person, it is a learned behavior.  Because of that, we can always be working to become a person of honor.  No need to feel you messed up in the past or you have failed too many times.  The past does not equal the future.  You can start now to be an honorable person in all you do.  Yes, that means a lot of hard work and change in behavior, but as an honorable person you can do it.

Success-Minded People are always striving to develop the qualities that make them Success-Minded.  If you focus on building honor in your life, all other areas of character will follow and be strong.  Henry David Thoreau gave a great formula: “Be true to your work, your world, and your friend.”  Do that and you will be known as a person of honor.

 © 2012 John Patrick Hickey