In a world where bypassing things has gotten easier thanks to the internet, our values are more important than ever.

No matter what we do, there is almost always a way to cheat the system.

For sports, you can use illicit drugs. For tests, you can cheat in multiple ways. For speaking a language, you can use a dictionary. For writing, you could take someone else’s work and rewrite it in a similar way.

The list could go on and on forever because there are simply so many ways to go around a problematic situation.

However, even if the immediate result may be positive (such as winning a race or passing an exam), the long term results will always backfire.

Staying true to your values is where you can truly gain positive results.

Your opinion of yourself

This probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when talking about the importance of cheating but I believe this is actually the most important one.

Even if you may have passed your test thanks to cheating, you will remember it and it will impact how you act in the future.

After all, you know you could have passed the exam if you had studied earlier. But now that you have proven to yourself that you can pass without studying and by bending the rules, your efforts will decrease subconsciously when the next exam looms.

What if you allowed yourself to cheat “just this one time”?

Unfortunately, it won’t work either. Your brain will have accepted and remembered the end result and it will stay with you forever now.

Furthermore, you’ll probably feel bad for having done it and your opinion of yourself will decrease by a lot.

You know you shouldn’t have, but you did.

There have been many days where I had no idea what to write about and thought about rewriting in my own way a piece that had resonated with me. But when I tried, I noticed there was nothing new.

And I know how much I hate reading something too similar to something else I’ve read. So I refrained myself and took the time to think of something else which would be original.

Self-control is better than success

So maybe you didn’t cheat. Great! You should be proud of yourself. There are countless others who wouldn’t have controlled themselves.

Letting yourself bend the rules is awful for your opinion of yourself, but refraining yourself from doing it is awesome for your self-esteem!

It means you accepted failure. And as result you will learn from it.

Failing is looked down upon throughout the world. After all, if you don’t succeed, then others who did will advance and leave you behind.

But bending the rules to advance means that you refuse to accept your shortcomings.

The good news is that nobody has ever gone far in life without accepting his shortcomings.

I may not write the most beautiful sentences and my articles may not have the best flow of all time, but I know it’s only through trial and error that I will become a great writer.

By refusing to let myself copy others' sentences, I can be proud of myself and keep on improving.

Reminder to learn

Because that’s the goal! What we truly need is not success.

There are countless “successful people” who have fallen into drugs or killed themselves. So obviously, success is not the solution to our problems.

Whether we want to admit it or not, what makes us thrive and look forward to the next day is learning.

Children who first succeeded in walking all have the same large smile because after many times falling, they finally stood upright.

In the same way, by staying true to your values and failing, you not only accept failure, but you also remind yourself that the efforts made this time weren’t enough.

You need to push further or change the approach you took. And that failure puts you back in the driver’s seat instead of pushing you to the passenger’s seat where you look at the driver and copy.

It’s not always easy to refrain ourselves from cheating the system, but staying true to our values, keeping integrity is the only thing that can make us improve.

And it’s by improving in areas you enjoy that you can slowly, but without fault surely, find happiness.