Ethics

You might ask yourself:  Do I have high ethics?  Am I generally a moral person?  Do I have a strong sense of right and wrong?  Am I off-base or often biased in this area?  Does my sense of right and wrong change when it serves me or the people I care about?  Why is ethics important?

    How often do we see a leader that is able to hold a position of great power and doesn't abuse that power over a great span of time.  This might be more difficult than it sounds.  A person that is trusted to manage finances and may have access to this resource may be tempted to utilize this resource for their own benefit.  A police officer may develop blurred lines over what might be the abuse of his/her power over time.  A leader of a company may feel entitled to exert his/her influence in an abusive fashion.  A politician or even a judge can become jaded over time and falter on their sense of ethics and morality.  Given a great sum of power, would you be able to guarantee that you would never abuse a bit of it over a long stretch of time?

     The development of a person's ethics and morals begins pretty early in life but may continue to develop and evolve deep into adulthood.  What factors, traits, and experiences can play a role in the evolution and development of a person's ethics? Is good stress management, for example, able to help provide a person with the freedom and time to ponder and mentally shape the development of their ethics?  Can being in good health and not exerting time and energy in trying to fix one's health allow for a person to develop other good habits and potentially character like ethics.  Would being able to identify the truth versus falsehoods assist in guiding and increasing a person's ethics development?  As a person's ability to have their own basic needs met, it can allow for the development and growth of other areas including ethics.

     A person with poor ethics will, in all likelihood, be hampered or hindered with poor relationships, have legal/financial troubles, cause a wake of chaos behind/around them, and have less of a chance to reach their higher potential/possibilities.

What can be done to increase the development of ethics and its maintenance?

Ethics