Mean What You Say

"I am forthcoming and decisive....I think...."

Ever say yes when you meant no? Ever avoided telling someone that you were upset because you didn’t want to upset them? Ever say you didn’t care when you did and let someone else make a decision for you? Made you pretty resentful, didn’t it?

I found a story I wrote about a year ago. I was at work when someone asked me if we should go a route that I disagreed with. Instead of saying, “No, let’s do something else instead,” the actual words I used were somewhere along the lines of, “Wellllll…..uh…hmmmm…..I dunno….” I used a voice inflection to insinuate my message instead of using up-front words. WHY THE HECK DIDN’T I JUST SAY NO FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE?!? I've been working on keeping all my messages accurate and to the point ever since.

We are not doing anyone any favors by being unclear or untruthful – quite the opposite, actually. When you do not say what you believe to be true, you're lying. Plain and simple. When you lie, you're doing yourself and the person you're speaking to a rather serious injustice by cheating everyone of the truth. It drags things out, it plants false ideas, it robs you of Power of Choice and it can do an excellent job of wrecking personal and professional relationships. How many people do you know that are extremely understanding when they find out that you've been dishonest? I know zero people like that and frankly, I don't want to know those people. Those are the people who only want you to tell them what they want to hear. No, thank you! My friends today all know and they'll agree - "Don't ask Micki a question unless you're sure you want to hear the answer!" I'll not be mean or heartless or condescending, but I will be honest.

Mean what you say. I can now vouch that in the long run you and everyone around you will be a lot happier, even if your honesty is sometimes hard to say and/or hard to hear. Also, in the process of telling people the truth you will learn new truths about yourself! Honesty is a blessing.