The Traveller's Travelogue

This is the world as I see it.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Honesty is the best policy

We all have at one point or another in our lives been told to try and be honest, and truthful at all times. We are told not to lie, cheat, steal etc. from/to others. That is all fine and dandy and I am for such an education but I feel that a larger point has been missing from all of our lives whilst getting this lecture. What I am talking about is being honest to oneself. Somehow that message seems to glide by everyone and all we focus on is the outward aspect rather than the inward aspect of honesty. My belief is that it is more important to be honest to yourself than others. As long as you do not lie to yourself you are pretty much on the right track. Take for instance cheating off someone else in an exam. Now if the person is honest to themselves they would know that this is a wrong deed because at the end of the day they rob themselves of the benefit. Also, being honest to oneself would be in this case when the person cheats but knows what he is doing is wrong ! See the difference. Both are instances where the person has been honest to themself the only difference is that one person carried out the misdeed and the other did not. What would not be honest to oneself is when someone cheats and tries to justify their actions by some crooked-logic excuse. It is high time we started instilling this trait in the future generations as an individual that would be honest to themself is far less likely to turn out to be a bad apple. Going back to the cheating example and travelling forward in time we see that there comes a time when both individuals are tested in life on what they were tested ages ago. The person who did not cheat in all likelihood would clear the challenge whereas the person who cheated would most likely not clear it. Regardless, the person who cheated if he were honest to himself would realise the only reason he did not pass the test was because of his underhandedness whereas a person who rationalised his cheating would end up lying to himelf again and the circle would continue. Lying to oneself is a great disservice to mankind it broods nothing but a lazy individual who would rather hide behind the cloak of deceit than face the hard facts and realities of life. Think for a moment if we lied to ourselves all the time we would be living in a "fool's paradise". If you are not honest to yourself then chances are you would not be honest to others simply because you spend the most time with yourself and if your attitude is not healthy to your own self then I seriously have my doubts it would be healthy with others. I am not saying do not lie and be all truthful, nay, rather I am saying do not lie to YOURSELF ! The rest would take care of itself.

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