Secret H8 - Connect truth to beauty

I hate reading motivational material that thunders at me about the importance of integrity and honesty for their own sake. Somehow, that always seems to turn me off, because the writers come off like angry preachers and teachers. Hardly inspiring.

I’m always inspired better by things that are made to look interesting and fun. I’m always taken in by a promise of life being more beautiful and rarely taken in by a promise of a life being more righteous and proper.

To me, the best case to make for honesty is how beautiful it is…how clean and clear it makes the journey from current reality to the dream.

When people know exactly where they are, they can go somewhere from there. But being “lost” is a function of dishonesty. And when we’re lost, or dishonest, anywhere we go from there is wrong. When we start with a false reading, there’s no direction home.

Like Bob Dylan’s rolling stone, we don’t know who we are. We feel at the core, “like a complete unknown.”

Truth, on the other hand, is clear, complete, and compellingly vivid. It is solid and strong, so it can hold us steady as we climb.

“Truth,” said poet John Keats, “is beauty.”

The more honest we are with others and ourselves about current reality, the more energy and focus we gather. We don’t have to keep track of what we told one person or what we told another.

One of the best and most positive explanations of the beauty of personal integrity was expressed by Nathaniel Branden in The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem. Branden, unlike most writers on the subject, sees truth and integrity as a positive part of the process of self-esteem. His point is not that we owe it to other people’s sense of morality to be honest, but that we owe it to ourselves.

“One of the great self-deceptions,” said Branden, “is to tell oneself, ‘Only I will know.’ Only I will know that I am a liar; only I will know that I deal unethically with people who trust me; only I will know that I have no intention of honoring my promise. The implication is that my judgment is unimportant and that only the judgment of others counts.”

Branden’s writing on personal integrity is inspiring because it’s directed at creating a happier and stronger self, not at a universal appeal for morality.

One of the ways we describe a work of art that is sloppy and unfinished is as “a mess.” The problem with lying or lying by omission, is that it leaves everything so incomplete---in a mess. Truth always completes the picture---any picture. And when a picture is complete, whole, and integrated, we see it as “beautiful.”

I’ll even hear about people---usually people who you can’t believe about anything---described as “a mess.” And conversely, a person who you can always count on to be honest with you is often referred to as a “beautiful” person. Truth and beauty become impossible to separate.

Truth leads you to a more confident level in your relationships with others and with yourself. It diminishes fear and increases your sense of personal mastery. Lies and half-truths will always weigh you down, whereas truth will clear up your thinking and give you the energy and clarity needed for self-motivation.