Honesty?

Naturally. Honesty and sensitivity quite often appear to be at odds with one another. Honesty always prevails over sensitivity. Of course, you are best off being as sensitive as possible with your honesty. Why does honesty always prevail? Because when you are honest, you are protecting someone's feelings in the long run and possibly helping yourself in the long run.

How are we ever to reach the ultimate goal of empathizing with one another if we cannot even be honest with each other? Being honest is a great place to start. Don't get me wrong.... honesty does not come easy. We have become incredibly accustomed to grabbing our coat, hat, and "superficial facade" as we walk out the door.

Start paying attention to how you represent yourself to other people. Are you trying to impress or are you trying to connect? Are you embellishing or are you being truthful? Honesty can take a whole lot of courage. People most often are judgmental of you rather than empathetic of you. And as long as people are judgmental we will continue to grab our "superficial facades" as we head out the door. It is a "catch 22" situation and therefore we are going to have to stop being so concerned about those that are judgmental of us and shed our facade.

Honesty is truly the first place to start. You can begin by paying attention to what is coming out of your mouth. Ponder your conversations that you have and ask yourself, "was I telling the whole truth?" Once you start recognizing that you are not being completely honest with people, you will start recognizing that other people are not being completely honest either.

You can start by cutting back on your white lies.

• When you tell someone you will call them back but have no intention of doing so, think again. Give them an honest explanation.
• When you tell a lie to make excuses for yourself, think again. Take responsibility.
• When you lie to protect someone's feelings, think again. Who are you really protecting?

Honesty begins with individuals making the choice to be honest. It's not easy. It's hard work but you will benefit from this in the long run. Your reputation and relationships will benefit also.

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