Honesty

Lying can take two forms. We can lie to others, and we can lie to ourselves. We start off by lying to others. We do it so often, and so well, that we actually convince ourselves of our untruths. Not just the untruths we tell others, but those we tell ourselves. We might use nice words like "rationalize," but it's really just a fancy word that means lying.

We lie to other people because it saves us. We make excuses for things not done or done, we fib so that we don't hurt others' feelings, but really, when it comes down to it, it's because we can't bear the discomfort that the truth brings. We don't want to be the messenger; there is a reason why the saying 'don't shoot the messenger' exists.

Lying to ourselves is a balm for an even deeper discomfort. If we told ourselves the truth about everything, we would make ourselves accountable for everything that we did. It would be our own responsibility to improve the parts of our lives that we dislike so much. We wouldn't be able to pin it on anyone else anymore, because we would have to be honest about it. Lying is a way of avoiding personal responsibility, Life and the Truth. How can we get closer to the Truth if we can't even bear to tell it to ourselves?

"Integrity is telling myself the truth. And Honesty is telling the truth to others."-Spencer Johnson