Honesty

Lying for personal gain always ends up being counter-productive in the long run. Why? Because truth is the foundation upon which our dealings with others are built.

Being a person of your word is a vital element to success. In the words of William Shakespeare: “The good I stand on is my truth and honesty”.

Success is not achieved entirely by yourself. On your way to success you will undoubtedly be aided by other people. If you are not honest with them you will only create feelings of bitterness. If you are not honest with yourself you will wonder why you are where you are. Any success you achieve using dishonesty will be artificial.

What is really surprising is that sometimes the truth is just as easy to tell. For whatever reason, people still choose to lie. The first step to shifting to a more honesty centered self is recognizing the lie and correcting it right away.

Ask yourself, “How does this impact my life?” If you are being honest with yourself, you will see that you probably have a lot of work to do. I feel it is easier to be objective than it is to be honest.

The concept of being truthful with others is promoted from a very young age; sometimes successfully, sometimes less so. What about white lies? What about lies of omission? What about truth that is delivered without tact? What about truth that is intended to harm? These questions are all valid and point to the apparent difficulty of what real truth is. The answer can be summed up with this intentionally thought provoking and vague statement: “It is always best to tell the truth, sometimes”.

What then is the hardest truth? It is any truth one does not want to face – the avoidance of which can lead to destructive results. Truth of this nature is often covered with layers of justification, excuses, misinformation, avoidance, and denial.

When your experience is in conflict with this type of elusive truth it results in irritability, stress, anger, or any number of negative reactions. You may not even know why you are feeling this way. To further complicate things, when you do feel negative, it may not even be due to a experience/truth conflict.

It is important to find these truths. Please keep in mind that it can take a while. So, how do you start finding these truths? By examining, identifying, and then removing the layers of deception which cover them. And that has to be a personal exercise, no one can do it for you.

The time spent discovering the hard truth will be rewarded. You will find things getting better in other areas of your life as well. Truth has a way of breaking down previously impenetrable walls. In the words of Stiv Bators: “Truth is the sword of us all”.

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