Doing the right thing won’t always get rewarded. Do it because you have to live with you.

Decency is not a trade with the world, because the world does not reliably settle up. Sometimes the person who cut the corner gets the grade, the shift, the applause, and no correction ever arrives. What you actually get is the one thing nobody can hand you or take back, which is not having to keep a private score against yourself.

Think of something you did right lately that nobody noticed, and let the noticing be yours. Decide the next small test before you know who is watching. A record only you can see still counts as a record.