Honesty Is The Best Policy

It's a strange thing...honesty. You want others to be honest with you, but not too honest as to say something you might deem too bold, or rude. You'll take the compliments, because it makes you feel good about yourself but God forbid someone says something you don't like. That's not fair now is it? Either you want people to be honest with you or not; it's not a case by case basis.

If you want my honest opinion, I will give it you. It may not necessarily be what you want to hear, but I wasn't brought into this world to make you feel good about yourself, unfortunately that's not my mission in life. How you react is up to you. All I can be is honest and leave it at that. But no matter how carefully you choose your words, you can pretty much guarantee you will fall on either side of perfect honesty. Don't let that hinder your intentions. People won't always react the way you'd like, but that is ultimately out of your control. Take responsibility for what you say and speak the truth. The reaction is the responsibility of the person you are speaking with. People will react according to their personal biases, which may not coincide with yours. Understand, you are not failing in your communication; it's merely a facet of human existence that must be accepted. Assume 100% responsibility for your own words and others should retain 100% responsibility for their response.

Honesty serves your own self interest because it keeps your understanding of reality from becoming corrupt by inaccuracies. The more honest you become, the more accurate your model of reality will become. Honesty also serves others well because it reflects their own nature back to them. Too much inaccurate feedback and people will suffer a false sense of self-security; it hinders one's own personal development.

I think people hold themselves back from being too honest because of the fear of coming off as arrogant or rude. Personally, I don't care because your response has nothing to with me. I can say to a girl "Hey, you look lovely today," and she can take it as a compliment or as harassment, or react to it a variety of ways. Her reaction is merely a reflection of her than it is of me.

So I say to you, be as honest as possible, with honorable intentions, while freeing yourself from the fear of an undesirable response and simply accept whatever response you get.