In today?s competitive and often cutthroat business world people often try to get ahead at any cost. It is rare that you meet a person with high standard of ethics and integrity, yet it is the people with the highest standard of ethics that achieve and maintain success.

The Law of Cause and Effect is the most important of all the universal laws. It says that for every effect in our lives, there is a specific cause. We have the ability to control the causes and change the effects to anything we want. Our thoughts are the primary causes of the conditions or effects in our lives, and if we want our lives to be different in the future, we have to change our thinking in the present.

You can sometimes escape man-made laws but you cannot escape a universal law. This is why it is so important to develop a high standard of ethics and live by them every day. Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of who we are. If we want people to deal with us with integrity and high ethical standards we must have those qualities as well.

It doesn?t matter what your heredity is or what type of environment you grew up in, it?s never too late to develop high standards of ethics as long as you have a strong desire to do so. It all starts in your mind with the thoughts you think. Your thoughts are shaped by what you read, listen to, and the people you associate with.

Your most dominant impressions will always be those that come into your mind at your most emotional periods and those which you plant in your mind as a result of a strong desire or belief. Earl Nightingale described this best when he said, ?You become what you think about.?

If you have a strong burning desire to achieve a particular goal and keep your mind, heart, and sole directed toward achieving your goal, with persistence you will achieve your goal. When you write and rewrite your goal, affirm it out load every day, and keep it in a place were you can see it several times each day, you will drive your goal deep into your subconscious mind, which will go to work to help you achieve your goal.

The universal Law of Substitution is very important in developing your standard of ethics. This law says that your mind can hold only one thought at a time, positive or negative. You can substitute a positive thought for a negative thought whenever you choose.

Any negative thoughts or actions that may have found its way into your mind or life can be eliminated and replaced with a more positive thought or action. For example, if learned to lie as a child you can block this undesirable tendency by forming a habit of always telling the truth.

Everything you do is more or less the result of habit, and those habits which have persisted and are most often repeated become the deeply seated ones which govern your actions.

Here are seven principles that will help develop your personal standard of ethics:

1. Always be honest in all your relationships.

2. Always be kind to everyone regardless of time, place, person, or circumstances.

3. Always be generous and unselfish with everyone you associate with.

4. Always be cheerful and optimistic no matter what circumstances you find yourself in.

5. Never slander another person.

6. Never engage in a business transaction which does not benefit all the participants.

7. Believe and practice that love is stronger than hate, right is more powerful than force.

After you?ve written your standard of ethics, memorize and live it every day. Soon it will become permanently implanted in your subconscious mind and you will find yourself automatically following it in all that you think and do.

When you live have a live by a personal standard of ethics it means that you accept that your world can only get better when you get better. No one is going to come along and change things for you. If you want things to change, you are going to have to make the changes yourself.

When you?re totally honest with yourself and everyone else, the greater courage and self-confidence you will have. You will become a more positive and enthusiastic person. You will develop a tremendous feeling of power and personal strength. The more you live by your personal standard of ethics, the better your character will become and you will achieve greater levels of success and happiness than you ever imagined.

Copyright?2006 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.