I was talking with a client the other day.
At one point I invited him to spend some time being still and then get to a place where he is honest with himself about his life, his leadership, his results, and his fulfillment.
He pushed back on my request stating that he said I was assuming he wasn’t being honest with himself.
I responded. “I clearly am stating that I think you are dishonest with yourself.”
He jokingly shut his laptop.
Up until that point, I think for him, he really thought he was honest with himself. I don’t know that it ever really occurred to him that he was being dishonest with himself in any areas.
It’s not binary.
I know he is not dishonest with himself in all areas or that it is the entirety of his being.
That’s not what I was inquiring about.
I wanted to know the areas he WAS being dishonest with himself.
Being dishonest with yourself can look like:
Convincing yourself that you don’t know why you are stuck
Blaming others for your problems
Pretending that life as it is right now is how it will always be
Convincing yourself you can’t have the life you want (ignoring the reality that you simply aren’t willing to put in the work).
Complaining about your lack of time management yet doing very little about it. I.E. If you complain that you are too busy but haven’t read any time management books in the past year - you are being dishonest with yourself. Based on results, you don’t actually care.
Convincing yourself that there isn’t a romantic partner out there for you…even though you’d really like that in your life.
Etc.
The reality is, we are all dishonest with ourselves in certain areas of life.
Are you willing to get honest with yourself about your dishonesty and then work to do something about it?
Or will you keep complaining your life away?