Honestly Speaking

There seems to be two sides to honesty. There’s one side of honesty that causes us to acknowledge things we like, be it people, food, places, art, music, politics or experiences and the other side that causes us to acknowledge things we don’t like. I’ve been studying and implementing the law of attraction in my life and am starting to see the results of the power of positive thinking. I’m not talking about mystical wishes for luxurious things like in “The Secret”; I’m talking about waking up and choosing to look at the world through an optimistic lens.

“I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.” - Mother Theresa

Mother Theresa’s quote is an example of the difference between negative and positive action choices. Instead of choosing to participate in being against things, participate in being for the opposite. Give power to what you are for, not what you're against. The same can be translated into the way we think. In this post I am going to explore this idea with respect to honesty.

Growing up (and to this day) my mom would always get bugged for seeing the world through rose coloured glasses. Think of the song by Blue Rodeo. Imagine someone did something bad and everyone was talking about how bad they were and then my mom would interject with a possible reason for why it could have happened or how so and so was just human. There was this idea that there was reality and then there was my mom’s reality. I’ll admit that I too would join the anti-rose coloured glasses bandwagon most of the time. Taking a step back and seeing how this aligns with the law of attraction, I believe she is, and probably has been, maybe without even knowing it, on to something powerful. When we choose to see things as we hope they will be, we are giving power to a positive outcome in stead of feeding an already perpetuating negative outcome. You may think this is airy, spiritual nonsense, but if you ever have the opportunity to sit down with my mom, hear her stories and witness the blessings in her life, she is nothing short of amazing.

The question I asked myself is this: Is the idea of looking at things through rose coloured glasses really being honest? Looking at something that is inherently wrong and declaring it right would not be honest, but perhaps looking at something inherently wrong and applying grace and hope
to it is being honest.

“If you truly want honesty, don't ask questions you don't really want the answer to” – Burmese Proverb

This quote makes me think of choosing to be a mushroom. You might be afraid of criticism or praise, so you stay in the dark. I like to think that what other people think of me is none of my business. I’ve done some great things and some not-so-great things in my life. I’ve made some people’s lives better and some worse. This is probably true for everyone. It’s the human side of being human. If I don’t ask, I don’t care (of course, this only always applies to negative feedback. Feel free to tell me I’m awesome whenever). Anyway, along this train of thought, I want to explore the idea of honesty as a rule of always saying what you think or feel. Divulging both like and dislike. Whoever said “honesty is the best policy” probably had good intentions, but never met someone that didn’t like them. If most people wanted to know what everyone thought of them and asked them to tell them their honest opinion, honesty as a best policy would be abolished. In consideration of the law of attraction (this works for positive and negative things) and adopting an attitude of choosing confidence over insecurity (caring what people think of you or feeding off attention), the first side of honesty (the one that acknowledges the things we like) will be dominant over the side. If the law of attraction stands true, the negative side of honesty will starve out. Good attracts good and bad attracts bad. That’s why some tables at a coffee shop are filled with conversation that make people smile and laugh and and some tables are filled with gossip that cause tense faces and closed body language. It’s not that either table is being more honest than the other, it’s just that each table is choosing a different side of honesty.

When considering happiness and the attitude I want for my life, I don't feel like I have to compromise honesty to like and be liked, I just have to chose which side of honesty I'll give power to.

Be an Idea Factory

Ideas are worthless unless they’re made real. Be it a process improvement, business, invention, adventure or money making scheme, an idea is only an idea unless you do something about it. There is some kind of stigma around ideas where people believe they hold value. I’m sure you’ve had or met someone who’s had an idea, but didn’t want to share it with anyone because
it’s just that amazing. One of those million dollar ideas. Ideas guarded like rare, secret treasure. An idea can seem so good to you, you fear that if it slips out, someone else will steal it! I say, who cares.

Imagine this: You walk into the offices of a major software company. Let’s say Microsoft. You go to the product development team and schedule a meeting because you believe you have something very valuable for sale. You were sitting on the throne the week before and a brilliant idea popped into your head. You thought of a revolutionary new program that will change the
face of file organization. You call the idea the File Matrix. This idea would simplify file storage and provide efficiency for quick recovery using a logical algorithm based on the user’s history of file access and searching. The details are all in your head, of course. You put on your suit and smile and pitch your idea to the team. Their first question: Can you load the program so we can see it in action? That’s the tricky part of ideas, what comes next.

I love to think of ideas. I keep an idea log. I like to sit and write ideas for this and that, sometimes 20 ideas in a row. I’ve read that you have an idea muscle and it needs to be exercised. I can believe it. Write down 10 ideas for a new business. It might be a challenge, but write down as many as you can. Tomorrow, write down 10 more. Eventually, your idea muscle will get strong and ideas will be coming at you from every angle. What I find interesting is how I love to think of ideas, but seem to lack the ambition to get to work on them! Because of this, I might as well
crumple all of those ideas up into a ball and toss them in the trash. How do you get from an idea to actualization? Simple really. If you’re able to create an idea, you’re able to create the steps needed to actualize the idea.

Now, let’s go back to the thought of guarding ideas like they’re rare, secret treasure. One thing that ideas love is to be shared so they can grow and be expanded upon. The thought of keeping ideas inside and guarding them can starve them to death. Sharing your ideas can attract feedback, added ideas and introduce resources that could actualize the ideas. So go ahead, get exercising your idea muscle and spread the good ones around. You never know where your ideas might take you!