The Language of Honesty

There are currently 6,909 languages in the world.

All are beautiful.

All are amazing.

Yet none of them are as powerful as the language of honesty.

Our world today is moving faster than I have ever seen before. Some days when I read the newspaper I barely recognize the world we live in.

There seems to be increased tension, international bullying, mass anger and societal suppression. Most all of these issues have always been present yet in a world that is transparent due to social media; all corners of the globe where tension lives become mainstream news in a matter of minutes.

In all of this, I want to talk to you about the language of honesty.

True honesty.

Last week in my place of work I had a performance evaluation with my department head. She is one of the most honest people I know. Her first language is different than mine and even though I sometimes have a hard time understanding her, I seem to connect with her more easily because she is honest.

I asked her to be fully honest with me in my performance review and that if there were any concerns I her to share them openly so I could become a better professional.

The conversation went amazing.

True honesty between two people happened.

It was a great gift exchange.

In your professional and personal life, when was the last time you were truly honest with yourself and with your colleagues? it is very hard practice honesty in many professional settings when “don’t want to rock the boat” becomes the established norm.

In our personal lives, what would happen if every person on the planet practiced true honesty. No one would feel slighted, disrespected or marginalized for what they believe or feel. Everyone would be an open book to others around them.

My encouragement for you today is to do an assessment of how honest you are with yourself as well as with others each day. In the areas and moments you are not honest, work to become more honest in those areas. This could be at work, in your home, with a specific person, etc..

Level up your honesty.

There is a saying that hate breeds hate just as love breeds love. I believe the same to be true for honesty. The more honest you can be in all areas of your life the more fulfilled you will be and the more amazing you can be within this world.

Honesty alone cannot solve the problems within the world. However, just as a baby takes his or her first step; honesty should be the first step to moving us forward in life.

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This post was previously published on Medium.

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