I have been invited to speak to the seniors at Trinity High School next week . My son attended Trinity so there is some history here. The school fathers teach the students to be men of character … and one of the core characteristics is honesty. I am addressing them on that subject.
My first thought is that honesty is a wide reaching subject. Think about it, if you had to present on honesty where would you start. Well you would tell them to always tell the truth, be honest. But then where do you go? It’s a broad subject.
Well, since I need to address these young men I have been focused on the subject for about three months. Here’s what I have come up with.
Honesty is internal but it is expressed externally. Honestly is an required navigational tool for making decisions. Honesty is a must for great leaders so that others can trust them. Honesty is a foundational building block for success. Honesty helps you become comfortable with who you are and pushes you to where you want to go.
O.K. we could go on. But what I have done is tell you what the characteristics of honesty do for you … yes it is needed. But how do we get ti?
Here’s how we do it. We dig deep inside ourselves, find out who lives there, and we plan to tell the truth with that person. We start to ask that person questions. It makes sense doesn’t it. If we are going to be controlled by someone we should know who is doing the controlling.
Here are the questions to ask. 1. Who am I? 2. What do I believe? 3. What are my values s? 4. What are my talents? 5. What am I doing with my talents? 6. What are my dreams? 7. What holds me back?
O.K. now, be honest! When you are honest with yourself you know who you are, what your dreams are, and how you are going to act on your way to success. You know what you believe and you stop worrying about what others think about you or your ideas.
I laugh at some of the goofy decisions I made through my life because I was concerned about what someone else thought of me or what I was going to do. I wasn’t honest with myself!
Perhaps it’s part of maturity or it’s just trying and failing ..just being honest with yourself and trust yourself. Whatever it is, I find life is easier when I am honest with myself and base my decisions on what I know to be true .. trust myself.
O.K. That’s what I’ll tell the students at Trinity.