News reports bring us plenty of examples of poor professional ethics being practiced in business, entertainment, and government. But in terms of personal ethics as applied to everyday choices that we don\u2019t read about, what percentage of people lie, cheat, steal, cut corners, or take advantage of others?<\/em><\/p>\n Some studies show that over 50 percent would cheat on their marital partner if they knew they wouldn\u2019t get caught. And well over 1 million people cheat on their taxes annually. Ethical transgressions that some would consider small by comparison, such as accidentally denting a car door in a parking lot and then not leaving your contact information or cutting someone off on the freeway, are just as important in living an ethical life as large ones, says international ethics expert Dr. Christopher Gilbert. That\u2019s because if we fail to make the correct ethical decisions and harm others in the little things, we can often rationalize that harm with the big things.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNo corporate president walks into their board and asks for a show of hands about scamming the consumer,\u201d says Gilbert, author of There\u2019s No Right Way to Do the Wrong Thing and senior consultant and speaker at NobleEdge Consulting.<\/a> \u201cThey make immoral decisions and then, like us with the little stuff, rationalize so the choice seems fine – even good.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe can often look for information or knowledge that helps us rationalize making a wrong choice,\u201d adds Gilbert. \u201cBut if we follow the Golden Rule consistently and treat others the way we want to be treated, the ethical decision is clear.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The following is an essay by Dr. Gilbert that might give you more insight into your own ethical decisions\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n I<\/span>n the summer of 2000, I accomplished one of my major bucket list items: skippering our 40-foot sailboat, Crescendo, across the Pacific to Hawaii.<\/p>\n Unexpectedly calm conditions turned this usual 10-day voyage into 17 days of patience-trying, slat-sailed, self-sufficiency as food and water whittled away.<\/p>\n Now, before you start to speculate that this is a story about the ethics of cannibalism at sea after we ran short, let me assure that you we finished the race intact and well-fed.<\/p>\n This tale is actually about the stormy, six-day boat delivery from Seattle to the San Francisco starting line well before the race. It was, in a word, rambunctious! I could use a lot of other descriptors, but that one is the most ethical.<\/p>\n For three-and-a-half days, my delivery crew and I braved 40- to 50-knot winds and 20-foot breaking seas. At the end, I knew we\u2019d reach the dangerous California shores in pitch-black stormy conditions.<\/p>\n Sure enough, at around 1 a.m., my navigator, Mike, and I climbed onto the deck, determined to steer for safer waters. Through stinging rain, I could just make out a light sweeping over our heads every five seconds. It was reflecting in and out of an angry, black, swirling sky. But it was a beacon! Over 20 miles away from that shore, the Point Reyes Lighthouse showed us where we were and where we should go after 650 miles of stormy ocean sailing.<\/p>\n Before I go further, while I was thankful, prayerful, thrilled, and adrenaline-rushed to see this ray of hope, it occurred to me then that I\u2019d had it all wrong. That lighthouse wasn\u2019t beckoning us to safety. It was screaming, \u201cWhatever you do, stay away from here!\u201d<\/p>\n Lighthouses don\u2019t say to sailors, \u201cCome here, it\u2019s safe.\u201d They instead shout in brazen symbols of light and dissonant symphonies of bells and horns that, \u201cThis is not a good place\u2014go away! Go far away from here!\u201d They sit atop rocks, cliffs, reefs, shoals, sand bars, and a host of other places eager to rob a vessel of its most crucial resource: the water beneath it.<\/p>\n Fortunately, our sea saga ended happily a few hours later with us anchored in relatively calm waters and sound asleep.<\/p>\n I pondered that lighthouse moment for years. I wondered if there was some hidden lesson useful in my journey to earn my Ph.D. in that weighty subject: ethics. Sure enough, like that sheltered bay, I eventually found it.<\/p>\n The lighthouse serves as a great analogy for what ethics do for us. Like the lighthouse, ethics provide us with a reference point. Call it \u201cenlightened guidance\u201d along the pathway to making the best choices for ourselves and others. And if we listen, ethics can also warn us of danger.<\/p>\n My sea-bound discovery led me to think about ethics and moral development in an entirely different way. Dare I say, \u201cI saw the light?\u201d<\/p>\n What had once been laws, rules, guidelines, policies, compliance, legality, philosophy, moral conscience, and even sin now became concrete and actionable moments about how to make good choices.<\/p>\n A study in ethics isn\u2019t about information. It\u2019s about transformation. What I mean by that is, I can experience all the lighthouse moments I want, but unless I use them for my own transformation, they\u2019re merely informational\u2014just a good story.<\/p>\n The word \u201cethics\u201d comes from the Greek word ethos or \u201ccharacter.\u201d You might say a growing awareness and practice of the right ethics is a profound transformation of our character. This enlightened awareness often comes as we navigate the more dramatic or challenging events in our lives.<\/p>\n My old perspective had painted ethics as gray, squishy, and philosophical, born of my family and upbringing, part of my culture, and religiously or academically based. Worst of all, my ethics were changeable. Maybe you\u2019ve encountered your own set of perspectives like this before.<\/p>\n After my lighthouse experience, I began to recognize that ethics, while supported by what we know or where we\u2019re from, are far more about what we do\u2014sometimes even despite what we know. It\u2019s ethics that are practiced on this basis that bring about our transformation. In my book There\u2019s No Right Way to Do the Wrong Thing, this is ethics principle number four:<\/p>\n Let me provide a more personalized example\u2026<\/p>\n Have you ever been on a high bridge? Maybe you\u2019ve thought the higher the bridge, the more substantial its guardrails should be\u2014especially on a windy day.<\/p>\n Imagine coming up to a substantial span over water, like the Golden Gate Bridge, while driving 60 miles per hour. And you suddenly see that there are no guardrails or boundaries along the bridge\u2019s sides. The edge of the road rolls right over the sheer drop into the waters 220 feet below. Would you still cross this bridge at 60 mph? How about if it\u2019s a very windy wet day, or worse, it\u2019s icy? Would you still drive at 60?<\/p>\n Aren\u2019t we thankful that those bridge guardrails are in place? They allow us to drive faster and safer in all weather conditions than the \u201csheer drop-off\u201d design. They create for all drivers a predictable path to our destinations. And they\u2019re free of the traffic mess caused by the random speeds, bumper-to-bumper conditions, and squirrely driving of cars bold enough to negotiate the bridges with \u201copen\u201d road sides.<\/p>\n Our best choices for ourselves and others happen when we navigate dos and don\u2019ts within a predictable pathway bounded by right and wrong. That\u2019s what ethics provide. Guardrails aren\u2019t iffy, gray, or relative. They instead exist under all driving conditions and are meant to direct all drivers equally. Imagine a set of bridge side rails that were intermittent or could be raised and lowered at the whim of each driver\u2026<\/p>\n No, we want our guardrails, our ethics, fixed and shared by all\u2014moving along the entire span of our lives. Making consistent right choices happens best on a pathway guided and protected by ethics that are constant and the same for all travelers. And those consistent guides are a privilege, not a penalty.<\/p>\n Ethics aren\u2019t a relative matter. They\u2019re based on the same universally transforming life experiences shared by us all. These experiences may be interpreted according to our own cultures, ethnicities, life circumstances, family origins, spiritual convictions, etc. But the moral development that results from these transformations is the same.<\/p>\n When we submit to a universal morality that establishes and maintains trust, we don\u2019t lose freedoms. We gain them. We practice ethics that make the quality of our lives better because we\u2019re assured that others are practicing the same ethics to make the quality of their lives better. It is, in essence, our twofold moral purpose. As we progress morally, so does our community. And as our community progresses morally, it also affects our growth.<\/p>\n People can believe that we should each create our own codes and follow our own ethical standards\u2014by individual, by group, by nation. But trust is a universal virtue. And its consistent practice animates a world in which we can all achieve our best. When you think about it, trust is the foundation of all human virtues.<\/p>\n Ethics isn\u2019t an exercise of our rights. It\u2019s an exercise of our virtues. That\u2019s the only way ethics work: for all of us in the same way. And for those who say to me, \u201cJust follow the law. That\u2019s ethical.\u201d I say, we\u2019d operate far better in a world of trust without laws than one of laws without trust. Now, wouldn\u2019t that be transformational?<\/p>\n How ethics serve as our lighthouses<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2018","category-fall-2018-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7987"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8098,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7987\/revisions\/8098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ethics Isn\u2019t About Information; It\u2019s About Transformation<\/h3>\n
Ethics Serve as Our Lighthouses<\/h4>\n
The Solid Ground in Trusting Our Lighthouse Moments<\/h4>\n
Our Ethics Are Expressed Not in What We Say But Instead in What We Do<\/h4>\n
Ethics Also Serve as Our Guardrails<\/h4>\n
Being Trusted Is the Foundation of Our Greatest Personal Freedoms<\/h4>\n
Dr. Christopher Gilbert, the author of There\u2019s No Right Way to Do the Wrong Thing<\/em>, is an international ethics consultant and senior consultant and speaker at NobleEdge Consulting<\/a>.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"