In today’s episode, we discuss telling the truth is your best policy.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons that you can reflect on in your journal so you can grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and have a better career, better relationships, and better personal finances while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
At the end of today’s podcast episode, I’m going to give you a prompt question to reflect on in your journal. The idea is to take one to five minutes to reflect on today’s lesson and write a minimum of one paragraph on how you can apply the lesson in your life life. You can use an actual journal, a word document like on Google Drive, or your note-taking app like Evernote. The idea is that you’re actually thinking about how to process the information to help you improve your life.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about how if you always tell the truth, then you don’t have to remember you lies. This is a saying from Charlie Munger and I find it very enlightening. I guess I got my good morals from my mom and she always said that I should do the right thing. And I feel that as people we should strive to do the right thing.
And telling people lies is not the right thing to do. You should be honest with people about what they are going to get in and what are the expectations are. Don’t give them false when you know for sure they are going to fail.
You can tell the truth in an empathetic way or you can be a jerk about it. So the best way is to learn how to tell truths in an empathetic way where it might sting but it is still in the best interest of the other person to hear the truth.
Once you start saying lies though, then that is when you have to remember your lies. Then lies become lies and then they can become hard to track. There are people that tell lies and you know it and it just causes you not to want to hang around the person. Because they said one thing and then it doesn’t fit with this other thing. Then you can bring it up and just let it go. But this shows how someone character is. I would never trust this person because if they are going to lie about this one thing, then how can I trust them with other things. How you do anything is how you do everything.
If you don’t want to tell the truth, then start asking questions so that the person can come to the truth themselves. That might be the best way. If someone is in financial trouble, I can’t just lie to them about their situation and tell them that they are going to be fine. I can be empathetic through and start asking questions that can hopefully get them to start taking positive action. If someone is heavily in credit card debt, then I can start asking questions about their relationship with money and how do they view money. I don’t want them to think that they are going to be able to retire at 62 when in reality they can’t retire until 70. Because there is going to come to a point where I would slip up or I will have to tell the truth in the first place.
It’s going to be way worse in delaying in the truth than to tell a lie now so I can kick the can down the road. If someone finds out you’ve been lying that is bad too. The policy is just, to tell the truth. This will build trust and keep people accountable. How are you supposed to know how to do better if you don’t know the truth. Lies have created a lot of damage in the past with wars that were fought that never should have been fought and policies that became law that shouldn’t have because lies were told. It just benefits one or selects few when people lie but then doesn’t benefits everyone else. So when you tell a lie, it just benefiting you now and you’re being selfish. This is not the way to live life. We should take actions that do the greatest good for society and not solely benefit ourselves. If someone is living in some type of lie, then people can’t give their best effort.
Telling the truth should be in your best interest and it will give you a better life. It might be uncomfortable at times, but it should be your best policy. As I said, you can tell the truth in a helpful way or in an asshole way, try to do it in a helpful way. The helpful can sting at times but it’s what’s required in the situation. But when you do this, then you have to carry the burden of remembering them and you can spend your time on things that are more productive.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it if you always tell the truth, then you don’t have to remember your lies. This is a good policy to follow for life because who has the bandwidth to remember every single lie that they tell. Plus when you tell the truth in an empathetic way, you create stronger foundations and bonds. I hate telling lies and it feels good that I don’t have to hold on to them. It can be uncomfortable, to tell the truth, but it’s going to save you a lot more trouble down the road.
So in your journal, ask yourself, what is the truth that you’re having trouble telling? What makes it uncomfortable? Are things worse in your head than you actually think? How can you make telling the truth easier? Sometimes I’ve held in the truth longer than it should have and it just causes me to feel worse than I should be. So hopefully this exercise helps you move in the right direction and to stop carrying extra weight that is not benefiting you.
Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
If you’re on iTunes, don’t forget to give me a five-star rating if you liked this episode.
Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
