Does Telling the Truth Matter?

When my son was 7 years old, my well-meaning friend offered to hook up an extra cable box he had … illegally.

I said absolutely not.

But my friend insisted that no one would ever know. I said I would know and what kind of lesson would that teach my son? He still didn’t get it, and persisted, “He would not know.”

Really?

Gosh knows I am not perfect. Gosh knows I’ve totally dropped-the-ball of my grander intention to be my ideal best self at times, but I learned something very important about myself in that exchange.

I don’t lie.

I don’t want to be known as a liar.

I don’t want anything to do with anything about lying.

Not only for the virtuous reason, that I didn’t want my son to ever think I would consciously and wittingly choose to do something unethical — I felt he’d smell the icky-ness of lying and the lack of character in the air!

But because lying felt too damn hard.

And flat-out wrong.

Like, what if you found out I hooked cable up illegally?

Would you think I lied to you about everything and anything that didn’t mean a damn thing anyway?

Would you think I was full of shit about everything I ever said and not value my ideas about what really mattered to me?

Would you think I was just ‘selling’ you health coaching as a fleeting and whimsical idea of the moment?

Or, would you know, would you trust by every thought, action, choice and decision I’ve ever made, that though not perfect, and though definitely a bumbling hot-mess in my budding days of business building, that what I offer is from a place of heart and experience that you fully trust?

For me, though very unwittingly, but very intuitively, I knew back when my friend asked me if I wanted a cable box installed for ‘free,’ that living in integrity is about living in wholeness.

How could I ever dare to promote myself as a legitimate voice about holistic health if my ideas were fragmented with half-truths, with lies, or worse, with only ‘selling’ as my end-goal?

There is one thing I know, and I was given the opportunity to remember this the other day by my insurance company, the thing that I learned in that conversation with my friend years back —

No matter how off-putting it may land, no matter how difficult being honest may feel in a moment, it’s very clear, there is freedom and personal power in truth telling …

And people love it. 

I’d love to hear your ideas about this post.

Have you ever felt confronted by something like this, when you knew your character was being called out?

I look forward to hearing from you in the comments box below.

Thank you in advance for sharing with me here.