Now, let’s face it, people. We LIE to ourselves on a regular basis. Come on now, you know the lies:
1) “I’m going to lose 10 lbs”. – Two trips to McDonalds later, LIE!!!
2) “If you let me feel better, I will never drink again”. – Wait, does that include New Year’s Eve? LIE!!!
3) “I’m giving up sweets!” – Hold on, I can’t let my kids eat the sweets at Halloween without me testing it! LIE!!
Now, don’t get me wrong. These lies aren’t EARTH SHATTERING but they are lies nonetheless. However, these aren’t the things that you should worry about when trying to be truthful with yourself. The truth of the matter is that you like Fast Food. The truth of the matter is that you like to have a occasional drink. The truth of the matter is that you love Suzy Qs, Ho Hos, and Haagen Daas.
However, sometimes, we don’t want to stare at the HARD truths. These are the ones that we don’t want to face. We don’t want to face the TRUTH that you may have a family history of diabetes, heart condition, and hypertension and that eating Fast Food could kill you sooner. We don’t want to face the TRUTH that we are drinking alcohol EVERYDAY to the point of where you may need help to stop.
Those truths are the ones that are the hardest to face and even tougher to overcome. But it gets deeper than that. Sometimes, the harder the truth, the greater the lie. The reason for the lie is that “IN OUR MINDS”, we feel that if we face the truth, we may have told ourselves that we can’t CHANGE the truth!
That fear is the ULTIMATE truth. We aren’t afraid of the TRUTH itself. IT’s the fear that we can not change it which keeps us from telling the truth to ourselves.
Think about it. Many of us have found ourselves with a TRUTH that we don’t want to face but in reality, we can conquer:
1) FACTS: Working at a job you HATE.
LIE: You keep telling yourself that you’re going to leave and get a better job.
TRUTH: The unfortunate truth is that you haven’t started looking aggressively for a job, you don’t know what your future holds, and you start to believe that you will be stuck at your job for ever.
REALITY: You can change your circumstances when YOU decide that you want to improve your situation. There is nothing stopping you from putting out resumes, going to classes, and networking.
2) FACTS: You’re in a bad relationship (and you have kids in that relationship as well)
LIE: You keep telling yourself that you’re going to leave that relationship.
TRUTH: The unfortunate truth is that you don’t think you can survive alone outside the relationship or you think you need to stay in the relationship for the benefit of the children.
REALITY: You do NOTHING for your greater well being by staying in a situation that is draining on your spirit and your soul. You will not see the sunrise when you convince yourself that it’s going it’s going to rain every day.
3) FACTS: You know that your health is not doing well.
LIE: You keep telling yourself that you’re going to take care of yourself.
TRUTH: Sometimes, life has so many things that we choose to give precedence that we end up putting our health mission on the backburner.
REALITY: As my doctor once told me, the inconvenience of preventing a problem today is nothing compared to the cost of correcting the problem tomorrow. If you stop and look at your day, you realize that your day is not SO constricted that you can’t take the time to take care of YOU!
Sometimes, you need help. There’s nothing wrong with wanting or needing help. I go to the doctor because my wife has stressed on me the importance of me being here with her. I can’t argue with that logic. Sometimes, it takes someone special in your life to give you a perspective that you don’t normally have.
Now, don’t get me wrong. It takes a lot to stare a TRUTH in the face. It’s not that we don’t believe we can face it. It’s that we don’t believe that we can change it. Just remember this, in life, there are only TWO absolute truths:
1) You were born
2) You’re going to die.
Everything else in the middle is subject to change. Take the time to change YOUR truth before your truth changes you!
