Sometimes you just don’t want to hear it, not even from yourself. Sometimes it can be staring you in the face and it seems easier to deny it than to embrace it. When told by others, sometimes it enrages us. It has the power to make us or break us. We run from it, but it always finds us. Though we sometimes avoid it like the plague, we can never escape its whisper. Sometimes we even reject it on our deathbeds. So, you ask, what is this often feared and seldom revered thing that we sometimes so cleverly evade?
Well, the thing that we often deny, and want very few people to know, is “the whole truth about us.” It is easier for us to point out our positive qualities and tell of our successes and accomplishments than it is to acknowledge our weaknesses, character flaws, and mistakes. It is one thing to be lied to by someone else, but self-deception is perhaps the most powerful form of deceit. If we are going to maximize our potential and discipline ourselves for the success that we are capable of, we must tell ourselves the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about ourselves.
We need very little discipline to do what is easy or what we like. Discipline is needed to face the difficult truths about ourselves and discipline is needed to change the things that hinder our progress. It has been said that honesty is the best policy, but when honesty is our only policy, our discipline will guarantee our success. If nothing else, we will save a lot of energy when we will no longer have to run from or dodge the truth. It is time for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!