Success often looks like strategy, talent, or intelligence, yet the root system underneath all of it is much simpler: your relationship with your own word. The small ways you keep — or break — promises to yourself are often the invisible force steering your results.
When those promises slip, not dramatically but subtly, your confidence erodes. When they stack up, your performance follows.
This is where “micro-integrity” comes in.
This concept was discussed in The Elite League Podcast, where mindset and performance coach Andrew Adams shared his perspective on micro-integrity, self-trust, and the hidden leaks that drain a leader’s energy.
Watch the full conversation to learn how small commitments shape discipline, confidence, and long-term success.
What Is Micro-Integrity?
Micro-integrity is the alignment between what you say you’ll do and what you actually do — measured in small, daily moments.
It’s not the big goals like “build a company” or “scale to seven figures.” It’s the two-inch decisions:
- getting out of bed when your alarm rings
- showing up on time
- finishing the work you said you’d finish
- honoring your health commitments
- sticking to the boundaries you set
These moments make a larger impact than they appear, because each one is a message to your brain about whether or not you can trust yourself.
Why Small Breakdowns Create Big Problems
You might think hitting snooze or being ten minutes late is harmless, especially when no one else sees it. But your subconscious always sees it.
The Slow Leak Problem
Imagine a boat with tiny pinholes in the hull. One hole won’t sink it. A hundred might not sink it today. But slowly, water gathers until the boat becomes heavy, sluggish, harder to steer — eventually unusable.
This is exactly how micro-integrity leaks work.
Entrepreneurs often tell themselves:
- “I’m just tired today.”
- “Being late doesn’t matter.”
- “I’ll start that routine tomorrow.”
Each one is another pinhole. Months later, they feel:
- burnt out
- unfocused
- inconsistent
- overwhelmed
- stuck in survival mode
The symptoms look like lack of passion or strategy, but the cause is often the internal erosion of self-trust.
Greg Carlson
Integrity as a Performance Tool
When your actions match your intentions, momentum becomes natural. Your mind stops fighting itself. Discipline becomes less about force and more about alignment.
The First Promise of the Day
One example from the clip is simple: waking up when your alarm goes off.
If you set your alarm at night and snooze it in the morning, you break the very first promise of your day. That sends a message:
“My words don’t hold weight.”
On the other hand, honoring that promise — even once — creates a very different message:
“I can trust myself to follow through.”
This alone can change how a leader moves throughout their day.
How Lack of Integrity Shows Up in Business
You can tell a lot about a founder by how they treat their own commitments.
Breakdowns often show up as:
- inconsistent marketing
- missed deadlines
- emotional volatility
- avoidance of difficult conversations
- tolerating low standards from the team
- clients who reflect that inconsistency
Leaders often attract the same lack of integrity they practice. Late clients, late payments, disorganized contractors — all reflections of the internal environment.
When you strengthen your own integrity, the quality of the people around you rises too.
Greg Carlson
Practical Steps to Strengthen Micro-Integrity
Below are real, actionable ways leaders can rebuild their internal trust system.
1. Start With One Promise — Not Ten
Most people fail because they overcorrect. They try to overhaul their entire routine in one week.
Choose one daily promise:
- wake up on time
- read 10 minutes
- take a 20-minute walk
- eat one clean meal
- finish tasks before 7pm
Start small. Stack later.
2. Use “Effective vs. Ineffective” Instead of “Good vs. Bad”
Labeling behavior as “bad” creates shame. Shame kills change.
Instead of asking:
- “Why am I bad at this?”
Ask:
- “Was this action effective or ineffective for the outcomes I want?”
This neutral approach helps you correct behavior without self-attack — a major theme in the clip.
Greg Carlson
3. Audit Your Leaks
Take inventory of where your integrity slips.
Examples:
- repeatedly snoozing
- saying “I’ll call you back” and not doing it
- showing up late to meetings
- skipping routines you promised yourself
- working out of guilt rather than intention
Pick the top two leaks and patch them intentionally.
4. Add Body-Based Practices to Reset Your System
One of the overlooked insights in the conversation is that guilt, fear, and shame are not just mental — they live in the body.
Entrepreneurs often sit with pressure that never gets released.
Integrating:
- breathwork
- mobility
- yoga
- walking
- strength training
…releases stored tension that usually fuels procrastination, avoidance, or emotional reactivity.
A calm body creates a disciplined mind.
Greg Carlson
5. Practice Consistency Without Perfection
Integrity is not about being flawless. It’s about noticing misalignment early — before it becomes a crisis.
If you break a promise:
- acknowledge it
- ask why it happened
- reset the next promise
Leaders grow by closing the gap, not by pretending the gap doesn’t exist.
Real Life Example: How Small Shifts Change Everything
Consider a founder who snoozes daily, misses workouts, and shows up late to internal calls. Nothing falls apart immediately, so they assume it’s harmless.
But over time:
- their confidence drops
- their energy weakens
- their team loses urgency
- clients sense inconsistency
- goals drag out
- opportunities slip
Now consider a founder who fixes just one leak: waking up on the first alarm.
Suddenly:
- they start their day with momentum
- they show up differently in meetings
- they follow through on small tasks
- they create a culture of reliability
- their self-trust compounds
The business changes not because of strategy — but because of integrity.
Greg Carlson
The Bigger Picture: Self-Mastery Is a Business Skill
The conversation also touches on a larger truth: leaders often build financial plans, team plans, and growth plans, but rarely build a self-mastery plan.
Yet everything in your business flows from your internal state.
When you strengthen integrity:
- decisions get sharper
- emotions stabilize
- your team respects you more
- your leadership becomes lighter, not heavier
- success scales faster
Self-mastery isn’t a luxury. It’s infrastructure.
Greg Carlson
Final Thoughts
Your business grows at the speed of the promises you keep — especially the ones no one sees.
Micro-integrity shapes culture, performance, confidence, and clarity. The good news is that it only takes one aligned action to begin rebuilding it.
If you want to go deeper, this article is inspired by a powerful segment from The Elite League Podcast (link here). The full conversation dives even further into how inner alignment fuels external success.
But everything you need to get started is already in this guide.
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