It is not an easy task when you decide to be an example to those around you, but it is the best thing you can do for yourself and those who watch you closely. What you are teaching is, to be honest to yourself and others.
You have to live with yourself, every moment of the day, when you are sleeping, and when things can tug at your mind and make you restless. The task of being honest, making it easy for those around you to have faith and believe in your word, “because your word is your honor, and a promise you will keep,” is one of the most straightforward attributes of who you are. You believe in what you say, do, and are, and your actions will vilify your every deed. Everything is a “sacrifice,” your life, with complications, hypocrisy, manipulation, lies.
Being true to your authentic, loving self opens doors to your full potential. By accepting your imperfections as your character traits, leaves you with a clear pathway on your journey. As you elevate your heart and soul, you are allowing and expanding every lesson and situation. Those who walk beside you, for whatever length of time, be it short, or a lifetime, is there by choice, and for whatever they have chosen to do while they are with you, so accept with love, peace, and create harmony to learn with each other, and be happy.
Honesty is going to take you places in life that you could never have dreamed, and it’s the most natural thing you can practice to be happy, successful, and fulfilled. Honesty is part of the foundation of my core values and principles. Honesty cuts through deception and knifes its way through deceit and lies. Goodness leads to a fulfilling, free life.
Honesty promotes openness, empowers us, and enables us to develop consistency in how we present the facts. Honesty sharpens our perception and allows us to observe everything around us with clarity.
The opposite of honesty is deception — or lying. Lying is equally harmful whether you are deceiving others or yourself. When you lie, you delude yourself into believing what you’re saying. You start digging an open ditch, even if with an infant-sized spoon, that will keep getting more prominent over time. You confuse yourself, confuse others, lose credibility, and put yourself in harm.
The worst type of lying we practice, to deceive, is when we lie to ourselves. We start messing around with our concept of morality, right and wrong, as well as our dreams and desires. Times that I lied to do something that I knew was wrong, I could feel it. My inner core warred and rebelled against what I was mentally committing to doing because it was in contrast to who I was.
When I look back on it, every time I lied (that I can recall), I was trying to excuse or misrepresent my shortcomings or to compensate for something. I was trying to pursue a sinful desire that would only, at best, produce temporary pleasure. Lies I told were often due to a lack of effort, positive morals, or thoughts.
Other times, I was convincing myself I wasn’t good enough or able to do something my heart desired. Lying or presuming, I didn’t know, the steep path in life. This depressing thought manifested itself in ways that I couldn’t possibly perceive at the time. It set me back by delaying the pursuit of my dreams. It took away my ability to take chances that my heart was willing to make, but my mind was blocking me from seizing.
Despite its temptation, ease of use, and false promises, lying gets us nowhere in the end. We stay right in our tracks or, much worse, go backward.
Honesty and seeking the truth is always the way to go. Honesty engenders confidence, faith, empowers our willpower, and represents us in the best way for others to see and witness our example. Openness improves our vitality.
I value success in terms of character, self-awareness, honesty, emotional intelligence, and hard work. How we treat ourselves, others, and how we use our talents to improve the lives of others.
I’ve always carried myself with a candidness (and I’d like to believe genuineness), which demonstrates a reflection of my thoughts. At times, I’ve been candid to a fault. But overall, I live with zero regrets. I believe faithfulness, openness, and honesty has benefited me more than any other qualities in how I comport myself.
Honesty has endeared me to many people of influence and, solely to my friends and loved ones. Morality is never contrived or inauthentic — it’s always the genuine article. I’d much rather lay all my cards on the table and be forthcoming and transparent about my aspirations and intents.
Do you want to be one of the most respected, highly thought of people? Honesty should be the bedrock of your foundation, as it will define who you are before you even allow others to know more about you.
Start today, first, by being as honest as you can with yourself. Be honest about your thoughts, words, actions, and wants. Then think about your interaction with society and your personal relationships. Are you letting people know your true self? If not, what are you afraid of?
~Diadel Kimberlee