Don’t Walk Away
Hey Team, here we are again! It’s going to be another great week and another great month. I wanted to share a quote that got me thinking about something important. Let me read it to you real quick:
“When you walk away from accountability, you also walk away from integrity.”
Accountability is such an important factor in our lives. Think about how critical accountability is in the long term. If you’re not holding yourself accountable or asking others to hold you accountable, what happens? You start blaming others. You make excuses. It’s always somebody else’s fault. Without accountability for your own actions, there’s no need for integrity. “When you walk away from accountability, you also walk away from integrity.”
This ties into our core values. We talk about transparency, being open, staying invested, and remaining humble. These are all vital qualities and the reason they are our core values at Northwest Enforcement. They help us achieve our core purpose of being valuable—because nothing less will do.
For me, accountability starts with holding myself accountable to God. My relationship with my Creator is foundational. It guides me and helps me stay on course. The second place I hold myself accountable is to my family—my wife, my children—and to my team and the people around me.
I ask the people in my life to hold me accountable. I also ask God to hold me accountable, to steer and guide me when I get off course. My wife holds me accountable, and my children do it naturally. They’re like little recorders! If you’ve ever said something, you know kids will parrot it back to you.
Speaking of parrots, some of you have seen the little toy parrot around the office. Both of my boys loved it when they were younger. It’s a battery-operated recorder on a perch. You turn it on, speak to it, and it parrots back exactly what you said. For example, if you say, “Chad is a beautiful boy,” it squawks and repeats, “Chad is a beautiful boy.”
No, I’m not so narcissistic that I talk to a parrot to hear compliments repeated back. Although now that I’m thinking about it—just kidding! The point is, integrity is not about people parroting back what you want to hear. Accountability is about having people in your life who remind you of what you really want to do, even if it’s uncomfortable.
Sometimes, those people will call you out when you’re getting off course because of fear, anger, frustration, or hurt. Don’t let those emotions cloud your judgment so much that you lose your accountability and, ultimately, your integrity.
Don’t let fleeting pleasures guide your actions either. That path leads to losing both accountability and integrity. These are critical things for all of us to consider.
As we step into this beautiful day, this beautiful week, this beautiful month, and this beautiful year, I want you to know that you are blessed. Have a wonderful week, and I’ll see you next time.
Always remember, here at Northwest Enforcement—and in our lives—we should strive to be valuable, because nothing less will do. God bless, and I’ll talk to you next week.
