Saturday, May 9, 2015

TRUTH

“The truth will set you free.” ~John 8:32
 
I was listening to my favorite morning show and they were doing their bi-weekly “5 Things You Need To Know” segment. One host began her need-to-know by quoting a headline from an article she had read. As she read the headline, my blood pressure spiked. The headline was, “Why Women Should Lie Even More Than They Do”.
 
People who know me, know that there are very few things in this world that can get my blood boiling. The way I see it, everyone has different opinions and different experiences that lead them to their opinions. The opinion doesn’t matter as much to me as the reason/experience behind it. So if someone tells me that they think sports are not good for kids, which is in direct conflict to my beliefs, I don’t get upset. What I would want to know is why do they think that? Maybe it is because that person’s personal experience with sports was from a situation where they were made fun of because they weren’t as good at sports as others. That would certainly lead to an unfavorable outlook on sports. And there could be a number of other different reasons.
 
However, the quoted headline attacks my values and my beliefs in more ways than one. First, honesty, trust, and truth are at the top of my core values. Therefore, the headline threatens a top core value of mine. Not only does it threaten my core values, if someone were to just read the headline and not the article, they might begin to spread the wrong word. I understand people sometimes feel pressure to lie, but that’s no matter. They shouldn’t lie.
 
Why do people lie? I’m going to give you two reasons: They can, and it’s easy. I’m sure you can come up with many reasons why you should lie in any particular instance. It will spare someone’s feelings; it will help me get ahead; I don’t know this person well enough to tell them the truth; and the excuses go on, and on. Some people call them reasons, I call them excuses. That’s because I try my hardest not to lie. Ever. I believe the world would be a better place without all the lies that are told every day, the big ones and the small ones. The fact is that people have grown accustomed to not hearing the truth. The truth can certainly hurt. The truth can also certainly hurt you. “Tony” may say, “if I didn’t lie in my interview, I would have never gotten this job.” So essentially Tony got the job over someone else because he lied. Then the person Tony got the job over suffers. I would ask “Tony”, “do you have to continue to build upon that lie now that you were hired? Do you have to keep telling lies to maintain that false persona you created to get the job?” One lie leads to another and another. It’s horrible. The truth on the other hand, never changes.
 
I can go on and on about this because I feel so passionately about it. But I really don’t think people want to hear it. I think people want any easy way out. They don’t want to always have to tell the truth because that would be too hard. They don’t want to face the truth because that would be too painful.
 
I will leave you with a few quotes on truth for you to think about. Please take a moment to consider cutting back on the number of lies you tell each day. Who knows, maybe one day people can start respecting the truth again instead of running from it.
 
“The truth may hurt for a while, but a lie hurts forever.”
“It’s hard to accept the truth when the lies were exactly what you wanted to hear.”
“The worst thing about being lied to is knowing you’re not worth the truth.”
~unknown
 
“If you tell the truth you won’t have to remember anything.” ~Mark Twain
 
Be True. Live Free.
Enjoy Life.
 
Coach Randal Suozzo, CPC, ELI-MP
 

 

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