Tag: true

Telling the truth

One rule that I live by is to tell the truth as often as possible. I’ve told the truth even when it was in my best interest not to. The reason I do it is three-fold…

First, I tell the truth because it’s the right thing to do. To me, it just doesn’t sit right in my soul to lie to someone else, especially for something important. I’ve told “white lies” many times before, but they usually make me want to come out and say what I really mean. Every time I lie, the other person may not know, but I do. And I don’t want that to chip away at my integrity and how I view myself. To lie because it’s easy is a coward’s way out.

Second, I tell the truth because the truth is likely to come out anyways and I want to maintain my integrity in the eyes of others. Part of the first reason I tell the truth is to maintain how I view myself, but as much as I specifically don’t care how random people view me, I do want people to generally view me as someone who is honest. If I keep telling lies and it turns out that the other person found out I lied, I begin to lose credibility. It takes a lot more effort to regain their trust once you’ve lost it.

Third, I tell the truth because it takes less energy to do so. Have you ever been caught in a web of lies? You have to keep fabricating a story for it to “make sense.” Then, when retelling the story, you have to try to stay consistent with what you’ve already said. How can you keep track of it all when it’s all made up? It takes less energy to just tell the truth. If there are consequences, so be it. Get those out of the way. Apologize if necessary. But I’d rather rip the band-aid off by telling the truth rather than prolong the story (and have the anxiety of wondering when you’re going to get caught/be found out).

The truth hurts sometimes. It sucks. But I’d rather know the truth and do something about it than be told a lie and think everything was ok. If you feel the same way, why would you treat anyone else so poorly by lying to them?

Being true to yourself

Be true to yourself. Nowadays, people want to become famous just to be famous. It’s not because they’re necessarily striving to be great at anything or known for being excellent at their craft. They sell out – doing or saying things that don’t align with who they really are just to try to get more likes or to make a viral video.

If you are only putting out the content because you want to get as many likes as possible you need to take a look in the mirror. Why are you trying to impress people that you’ve never met and likely never will meet? If the work that you’re putting out into the world is not something you’re proud of, why do it? Don’t do things to impress a random person or say the something on social media because you think it will be accepted by the main stream. You should do, say, and create things because they matter to you.

The world is full of individuals. We are all unique and that’s what makes this such a wonderful place. Be the real you. You may offend some people or turn others off, but the people who like your actions? They’ll like the real you. And you’ll be able to form a deeper bond/connection with them than any of the shallow connections of getting a few likes on a post.

Leading

When you are in a leadership role (and everybody is to one degree or another) be your true self. Don’t try to emulate someone else. If you want to you take bits and pieces from leaders you admire, absolutely feel free to do that. But if you want to just copy someone else, you will never be the best leader. Because at best, you will be a poor man’s version of whoever it is you’re trying to imitate. For example, nobody is a better Abraham Lincoln or Theodore Roosevelt than Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. They were great because they were themselves. They did things as they saw fit. If you try to do exactly as if they would’ve done, you’re going to fall short. It’s best to learn from others, but still implement your own style.