Are you afraid that your true self might be rejected? You’re right. There may be people who try to put you down for living an authentic life. But they hold absolutely no power over you. If you make your soul visible, you have the power of truth on your side.
DAY
65
“Honesty is better than any policy.”
— Immanuel Kant
You are now moving into the next part of the circle that was discussed on Day 60: honesty. You have already spent a lot of time with honesty as you worked to discover your authentic self, and you have an opportunity now to continue to make it an integral part of your everyday life.
Honesty is better than any policy. When you are in doubt over what to do in a given situation, the best tactic is to be honest. There is always a spot in your soul where you can draw on the truth. That place of honesty should be the core of all of your decisions.
Are you honest? Or do you spend more of your time developing policies that you think will help you get what you want? Honesty is not easy. Sometimes the honest road looks a little more harrowing than other directions. It can be a difficult path, but the route is always more direct, and the rewards are always greater. They may not be rewards that include money and prestige, but they will most likely include peace of mind, serenity, and happiness.
Your assignment today is to observe your actions. Were you honest? Did you take credit for something you didn’t do at work? Did you let your husband paint the kitchen a color you really don’t like, because you didn’t want to start an argument? Did you keep the extra dollar bill a cashier gave you by mistake? Did you say you were “fine” when really you felt depressed? Make a mental tally of how many times you are honest today.
DAY
66
“Nobody can boast of Honesty till they are try’d.”
— Susanna Centlivre
It’s pretty easy to say, “Sure, I’ll be honest. Sounds like a noble idea. Why not?” But you will never truly know if you are capable of honesty until you are tested. Honesty is not easy. It carries with it great rewards, but it is hard to put into action in certain situations.
What if your boss asked you to slightly alter some of the accounting books in order to give the business a tax break? Would you do it? If you practice honesty every day, the answer is simply no. However, when a situation like this comes up, you may start to consider the consequences of your actions. Then the decision is not so easy. If you refuse, will you be fired? How will you support your family?
Nagging questions about consequences may lead you on a detour from the truth. You start to rationalize your actions. What difference will one little change make in the big scheme of things? It will help the company, and you will keep your job. Maybe it would be safer not to make any waves. Next time you’ll stand up to your boss, but right now you need to worry about supporting your family. Soon the line between true and false is smudged.
It is very important to be vigilant in your quest to live an honest life. Integrity is so important if you want to achieve lasting success and be proud of your accomplishments. When you are faced with a chance to smudge the line between truth and falsehood today, your job is to choose the honest path. Do not consider the consequences. If you are honest, the details will take care of themselves.
DAY
67
“Hamlet: To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.”
— William Shakespeare
When you picked up this book, you had a desire to achieve success. You are learning every day about ways in which you can triumph in life and be that one person in ten thousand who stands out from the rest. Here’s your chance.
An honest person is the exception rather than the rule, as William Shakespeare points out through the words of Hamlet. If you want to be exceptional—if you want to stand out in a crowd—it is time to practice honesty in all of your affairs. Are you up for that challenge?
Before you give this honesty thing a real shot, you might want to explore some of your deep-down feelings on the subject. Do you truly believe that honesty is the road to success? Or are you skeptical? Is there a voice in your head saying, “Wait a minute, there are hundreds of successful people in the world who do not exhibit an ounce of honesty.”
You can certainly find dishonest people in positions of power across the globe, but they are not the ones to emulate. What kind of life do you want to live? If you want to stick out in a crowd as an example of living a great life, choose honesty as your path to success. You will be happier, and you won’t have to waste time looking over your shoulder and wondering when you will be caught in a web of lies.
Your assignment today is to write down five successful people you admire for their honesty. List the traits they have that you would like to adopt.
DAY
68
“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”
— Mark Twain
Another great advantage of honesty is that it’s uncomplicated. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember your stories. You don’t have to keep track of the lies that you told people. Telling the truth is simple.
Johnny just didn’t feel like going to work. There was new-fallen snow up in the mountains, and he was yearning to take a day off and hit the ski slopes. The problem was that he didn’t want to use any more vacation days that month. He had a bank of sick days but only two vacation days left. So Johnny made up a little lie. He left a message for his boss early in the morning, before he would be in the office.
He plugged his nose and made his voice sound scratchy. “I’m sorry, sir. I have a terrible cold. I won’t be coming in to work today.”
Johnny grinned at his ingenuity as he piled his gear into the SUV and took off for the mountains. It was a great day of skiing. The lines weren’t long, because it was a weekday, and the sun shined brilliantly on the sparkling new powder.
Johnny stopped in at the ski lodge for a quick lunch, and his heart sank when saw a familiar face. It was his boss’s teenage son, who was on a high school skiing trip. As the young man walked toward him, smiling, Johnny’s mind raced for a plausible story to coincide with the lie he told the boy’s father that morning.
Have you been in a similar situation? Your assignment today is to journal about a time when you were caught in a lie. How did you feel?
DAY
69
“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.”
— W. Clement Stone