Honesty is not truth, but we think it is. Honesty is not factual, but we often hope it is. Honesty is not hard, but we tell ourselves that.
Honesty is the lack of lying. It’s the removal of typical social barriers, half truths and white lies we tell at parties to people we don’t know. But it feels easier not to be honest. It feels easier to make up our own stories. It feels easier to be someone else.
But it’s not.
Honesty is removing the stupid insecurities we all put up. It’s stripping ourselves down to our bare essence, without any sort of armor or padding to protect ourselves from the world. It’s like running without shoes, but it’s not about leaving our doors unlocked and not having passwords on our phones. Honesty is personal.
Honesty doesn’t depend on the altruism of other people, like not having locks or passwords does. Honesty is intensely individual. It may be the most personal thing we have.
People are often dishonest when they don’t have an answer to the question. We cheat because we refuse to fix the real problem, we make up something because we didn’t read the book and we act a certain way in order to hide our inner demons we’re ashamed of.
And that’s stupid. It’s stupid because we’d rather be liars than wrong. We’d rather appear smart than actually be intelligent.
Knock it off. Try removing the barriers. Try admitting that you don’t know. Try running without shoes.
Yes, it’s harder at first. Yes, it will hurt for a while.
But it’s worth it. You’ll get to know yourself. You’ll get to see who you really are without the need to be compared to someone on a reality show.
You’ll be complete. ((This post heavily inspired by Vibram Five Fingers and Chuck Klosterman))
Pingback: uberVU - social comments