THE ONE PERSON YOU CAN NEVER LIE TO
But we will never ever be able to carry out a lie successfully because there is one person who is impossible for us to deceive, and who will always know if we aren’t telling the truth. This person will also remind us and give us uncomfortable feelings of how wrong it is to be dishonest.
Who might this person be? The answer is that it’s the person who knows us better than anybody else, even more so than our closest friends and parents. That one person is ourself.
No matter how well a person can deceive other people, they will always know the truth within themselves. This fact makes lying a useless act that will never work as well as we may initially hope. In social situations we may get the urge to tell “tall tales” or bluff things out in the hope of making ourselves seem like we have more than we really do. This could even become believable to the people we’re talking to. In another situation we may have done wrong things or not put in as much effort as we could have done. Then in the hope of making ourselves feel less guilty we could lie and say that we did our best or did no wrong. Sometimes people can even go to such means by using deceit to hurt or manipulate another person.
No matter how well a person can deceive other people there will always be the knowledge of the truth within us. If we’re given credit for something we didn’t really do, there wouldn’t be the same sense of pride and accomplishment within us. So in that situation every compliment we’re given would mean nothing to us at all. Whenever we tell any person something which isn’t true and get believed by them, we ourselves will know the truth and that we told a lie. This will always give us an uncomfortable feeling which could be guilt and/or a fear of the consequences of being caught out in that lie.
Knowing the truth and feeling uncomfortable about it doesn’t just apply to us telling lies to people either. Uneasy feelings can also arise when we know that we didn’t work to the best of our ability. With everything in life each and every one of us have our own ability levels in different areas. We ourselves know our own potential better than anyone else. If we fail yet know we’ve tried our best there may be disappointment. However at times when we ourselves know that we could have tried harder, there will be a sense of regret within us which is so much more painful than pure disappointment.
It’s fact that we can never tell ourselves a lie (misunderstanding or not remembering a situation correctly is different), yet we can use this in a very positive way in life. Firstly the uncomfortable feelings that come from being dishonest enforce us to treat people with respect and tell them the truth. It is possible to use honesty and diplomacy simultaneously.
Another advantage is that always knowing the truth about our abilities means that we can potentially set ourselves suitable goals, and then follow them through to completion. So our inability to deceive ourselves is literally the key to our success!