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Of all the lessons in the 100 Day Challenge, this is one of my favorites…and one of the most surprising. It's a rare thing in today's culture to promote ethics. But this lesson does it powerfully. It is jam-packed with profound insights.

Over the past couple of decades, I've researched ethics and community. Here are my favorite books on the subject:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• There's No Such Thing As “Business” Ethics: There's Only One Rule For Making Decisions
• The Mormon Way of Doing Business: How Nine Western Boys Reached the Top of Corporate America
• Is Lying Sometimes the Right Thing for an Honest Person to Do? (or it's revised version: The Bottom Line on Integrity)

Not only is the topic or morality an ethics rarely discussed in the public square (remember, never discuss religion or politics!), defining what's right and wrong is a never ending battle of semantics. Apparently no one has any right to claim truth on anything.

Personally, I actually really truly believe that most things are fairly black and white. I don't say that from some angle of utter naïveté. Rather, from practical experience. Most real moral dilemmas occur because there are competing good alternatives or multiple bad choices. And our communities and countries will never heal unless/until we collectively decide that we are willing to commit to a common value set.

In contrast, the 100 Day Challenge, makes not bones about right and wrong. Gary Ryan Blair, in no uncertain terms, claims that true success in life can only come about along with increased integrity. And he clearly defines that integrity.

What works is not necessarily what is right, even when you can get away with less, even when the wrong things seems like no big deal, even when no one is watching.

Imagine a world filled with residents who had internalized these truths! The benefit would be mind-boggling.

Instead, there are large and ever-growing numbers of people who've decided to game the system. They've decided to thrive at the expense of others by taking advantage of the goodness and honesty of the general populace. And it works for a while. Until the scales tip in favor of the dishonest, the thieves, the takers. When they outnumber the good, the decent, the contributors, the advantage is gone and the world is dangerous and chaotic.

In your quest to live your ideal life, remember these bits of advice.

It is far easier to do right than it is undo wrong.

and

Sweat the small stuff, as character is revealed in the smallest of actions.

In this new year, it's exciting to consider the impact of implementing these ideas!

Join me in the 100 Day Challenge!

Alison Moore Smith is a 61-year-old entrepreneur who graduated from BYU in 1987. She has been (very happily) married to Samuel M. Smith for 40 years. They are parents of six incredible children and grandparents to two astounding grandsons. She is the author of The 7 Success Habits of Homeschoolers.