God see things as they really are. If we accept the idea that he is the happiest of all beings, and that the more like him in character and knowledge we are, the happier we will be, we too must learn to view things as they really are. This is what it means to be honest.
Dishonesty is the degree to which we think, feel, or act inconsistently to what we know. It is the degree to which we are at odds with things as they really are, as far as we understand reality.
Honesty is like a seesaw—it is easy to be off to one side or the other, but very difficult to be balanced. People tend either to be too hard on themselves (one form of dishonesty) or not hard enough on themselves (another form of dishonesty). They tend to be too exacting of others (another form of dishonesty) or too quick to make excuses for others (another form of dishonesty).
Dishonesty blocks opportunities for both increased joy and reduced suffering.
Examples of dishonesty
Being dishonest is so common that most people would be shocked to hear just how prevalent it is. They would scoff at the label being applied to what is (to them) normal behavior. Here are several examples of dishonesty that are rarely acknowledged:
- 1. Worrying about things you can’t change.
- 2. Ignoring things about yourself that you don’t like.
- 3. Ignoring signs in your life that indicate a need for changes to your behavior.
- 4. Ignoring things about others that differ from how you see them.
- 5. Blaming others for things you have the power to change.
- 6. Blaming yourself for things you don’t have the power to change.
It seems impossible to overstate the prevalence or effect of dishonesty in society today. Nearly every case of suffering in the world today is due to dishonesty. We have wantonly ignored what is plainly evident right before our faces to a degree impossible in a pre-industrial society. Today’s society drowns in oil-fueled surplus abundance which makes it possible to ignore consequences even when they reach great magnitudes. While to a righteous people, such abundance would be sufficient to help usher in a utopia, all we’ve managed to do is magnify our sin by covering the consequences of our evil desires by pretending reality is something other than what it is.
Viewing things objectively
You must learn to see things outside of the perspective of your ego. Your brain is smarter than you know, and it will engage in the most elaborate and irrational gymnastics to avoid self-incrimination. In order to consider things that might grant you greater joy, you have to navigate a maze of automatic subconscious reactions, any one of which is sufficient to completely shut down any chance for improvement. Your subconscious will generate thoughts such as, “if this is true, I am a far worse person than I thought,” or “what would this mean about all those sacrifices I made on a false pretense?” or “if this is true, then those bad things I’ve gone through (or done) are my fault.”
Learn to think about things as if you were an impartial observer. Don’t allow your subconscious to interpret things through the filter of what you consider impermissible. View things for what they really are without thinking about the implications.
Self-implication is always a good thing. If you implicate yourself, that’s a good thing, because you are identifying something you can improve, and improvement always leads to joy.
We can think about the future and the past but we can only act today
There is absolutely no benefit in focusing on things you can’t change. It causes extra suffering and limits joy. It is far easier and more beneficial to be realistic about what you can change and focus your efforts on that.
There is never anything you can do to change the past. You can and should identify past mistakes because it means you have learned from them, won’t make them again, and now have the wisdom to help others avoid them. If you realize something you’ve done to hurt others in the past, it gives you the opportunity to try to make things right. What you can do about realized mistakes and past offenses, like everything else you can do something about, lies in what you do about it today.
There are always things about the future that you can’t do anything about. However, there are also always some things about the future you can do something about. It is good to consider the future as long as it is in order to trace it back to what you need to do today to affect desired outcomes. Focusing on future events outside of what you will do today is dishonest. It will create a feedback loop of anxiety that will prevent you from doing what you actually need to do today, causing less joy and more suffering in your life than what could have been had you not selfsabotaged.
Anxiety is experienced when we confuse the things we can change with the things we can't. Anxiety comes as we incorrectly assign the feelings that come when we aren't doing what we can about the things we can change to the things we can't change. Anxiety is caused by dishonesty and a lack of faith in God, and any treatment that doesn’t address the cause will fail to relieve the symptoms. If you are anxious, you are either not doing all you can do today, or you don’t trust that God will take care of the rest. Anxiety is relieved as you correctly parse out the things you can change from the things you can't change. When you list out these things, on paper if need be, and isolate the specific actions you can take to work on the things you can change, your anxiety will end.
The only way to affect the future is by what you decide to do today. When we do everything that lies in our power to reconcile to reality as far as we understand it, we can trust in God to ensure that whatever happens from that point is exactly what he sees as absolutely necessary on the path to our greatest joy.
Kicking against the pricks
When the Lord appeared to Paul to convince him that he should stop persecuting Christians, he asked how long Paul would “kick against the pricks.” He was trying to make Paul aware of the available evidence that Christ was the Messiah. He had the stories of all the miracles Jesus had performed, the darkness and earthquake during the crucifixion, the hundreds of eyewitnesses to his resurrection, and the witnesses of those who saw the righteous dead co-resurrected with Christ. He should have recognized Jesus as the Messiah—he knew the law of Moses and the prophecies. It took a fantastically bold vision and subsequent blindness for Paul to finally get it.
Jonah tried to run away from God’s will. Finding himself in the hellish outcome of his foolishness, he prayed to God in plain humility. He said, “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” (Jonah 2:8) In order to make the best of any situation, you must first decide to get honest about what is really going on.
We should be easier to entreat than Paul or Jonah, who are typically scapegoated as examples of obstinance. We look at them and sneer, “what fools!” Countless examples show that obliviousness is not specific to them. God constantly assaults us with signs that what we perceive is incorrect or incomplete. We are mostly oblivious to them, and typically only respond when something hits us so directly that it threatens to destroy us completely. “Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.” (Proverbs 13:18)
No greater witness to the human tendency towards “kicking against the pricks” exists than the epidemic of depression and suicide. Depression is caused by dishonesty—specifically, an unwillingness to accept things as they are.
The path to greatest joy is the one most aligned with reality. You can fight reality all you want, but you will never win.
Some hesitation to change may occur due to fear of making a mistake. There is no harm in being unsure. It is good to recognize when we don’t know the answer. The harm comes when we either a) know the answer but have convinced ourselves that we don’t yet know, or b) we forget that the one and only way to find the answer is to act.
The key to knowing what is good is using our intelligence to think about what would benefit. This will result in a collection of potential positive and negative outcomes for each choice. Then, we act to obtain more information about the path that seems most beneficial. As we take the path that seems more positive, we will know with a surety whether that path is how we imagined it as our actions either result in the expected outcomes, something worse, or something better. This is a process that happens as quickly as our actions are bold.
Bold, quick actions generate clear and fast answers. Slow, subtle actions generate slow, subtle answers that can be easily misinterpreted. In other words, confusion need not be anything but the most temporary state. Confusion is an invitation to ponder on the situation, to catalog choices, to consider positive and negative consequences, and finally, to act. People who follow this recipe will hardly ever make a mistake, and when they do, they will very quickly notice it and any damage incurred will be absolutely minimal compared to those who follow some other practice. Those people, in contrast, will find themselves constantly tormented by a mediocre life, tormented by thoughts of what could have been and a deep nagging feeling that they aren’t being their best selves and living an abundant life.
Hypocrisy is a matter of the heart
Hypocrisy is to claim to have standards that you don’t actually live by. A dishonest person is rarely overtly evil. Instead, they subconsciously twist and contort reality so that, in their own minds, they are better than they really are. They want to feel good, but they are unwilling to actually be good. They will engage in astonishing levels of deception to preserve the polished shell necessary to convince others that they are more than they really are. This fuels their self-delusion, and prevents them from having to contend with the true state of their own heart.
Jesus railed against hypocrisy. Why did he spare no expense in chastising those with this characteristic? It is because of its high eternal cost.
When you refuse to recognize reality, you cut yourself off from any potential improvement because you close all channels to God correcting you. Because you remove yourself from relieving the cause of your affliction, you seal yourself to it.
Hypocrites can’t be reclaimed because they cut themselves off from anything that could be used to help them self-correct:
7 Behold, verily I say unto you, there are hypocrites among you, who have deceived some, which has given the adversary power; but behold such shall be reclaimed;
8 But the hypocrites shall be detected and shall be cut off, either in life or in death, even as I will; and wo unto them who are cut off from my church, for the same are overcome of the world. 9 Wherefore, let every man beware lest he do that which is not in truth and righteousness before me. (D&C 50)
Hypocrites cause a great deal of trouble to themselves and others:
12 Worthless liars go around
13 winking and giving signals to deceive others.
14 They are always thinking up something cruel and evil, and they stir up trouble.
15 But they will be struck by sudden disaster and left without a hope. (Proverbs 6, CEV)
Hypocrites have a standard reaction when confronted with evidence that they are not what they pretend to be. Like slugs exposed to salt, their convulsions are violent but predictable. They will:
- Deny. They will engage in immediate and blatant lies to avoid what is painfully obvious.
- Deflect. They will twist and contort reality to make things someone else’s fault.
- Lash out. They will get astonishingly angry.
Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees provide ample examples of each of these reactions. Let’s just look at one of each. There are many more. Deny:
39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. (John 8)
Deflect:
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
47 He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? (John 8)
Lash out:
54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God:
55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. (John 8)
What is in your heart? What do you desire? An apple with a rotten core will disintegrate from the inside out, but those with desires single to the glory of God will find themselves full of light that permeates them and radiates from them. Seek not to feel good, but to actually be good.
Act versus be acted upon
You are an independent agent, endowed by God with the freedom to choose:
And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon. (2 Nephi 2:14)
A massive portion of your situation is wholly within your control, including the ever-important perspective you choose to interpret the circumstances of your life:
And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given. (2 Nephi 2:26)
Be responsible for your life and what you use it for. Don’t blame other people for things that are your fault.
30 And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.
31 He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you. (Helaman 14)
If you wish to improve, the place to start is by asking what you could do differently to obtain a better outcome.
Sometimes, some portion of your situation is due to the choices of others. Even then, 100% of what you can change about the situation lies in how you react to it. What are you going to do about it?
Freedom through honesty
Don’t suffer needlessly for things you can prevent.
14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. (1 Peter 4)
Jesus came to free you from the prison in which dishonesty traps you:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; (Isaiah 61:1)
He said: “...the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
He frees you by showing you something better—which requires you to be ignorant of something or wrong about something.
In order for the Lord to lead you to greater joy, you have to be willing to be a fool. You have to get to the point where you care more about what God thinks of you than what others do:
Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. (Jeremiah 17:5)
You can’t care about both at the same time:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24)
Be willing to change
Improvement requires letting go of what you already have. Obviously, the beliefs, relationships, circumstances, or goods you currently embrace bring you some level of joy. But it is dishonest to pretend that this means that they are final, perfect, or flawless.
There is no harm in seeking joy and happiness. That will always lead to something better. The harm comes when you assume that what you presently possess precludes the existence of something better.
Only those without wisdom are foolish enough to think that something imperfect or incorrect is final, perfect, or flawless: “Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly.” (Proverbs 15:21)
Pay attention to consequences
The body has sophisticated mechanisms to detect and kill cells that are harmful. It is not uncommon for cells to develop problems. When this happens under normal conditions, the body detects and destroys them before they can propagate. Cancer occurs when the body’s natural ability to detect aberrant cells is somehow curtailed, allowing the damaging cells to multiply in both number and effect. Cancer is caused by environmental and genetic factors. For example, when certain people smoke cigarettes, their bodies start creating lung cells with thicker-than-usual cell walls that make damaged cells invisible to the mechanisms that normally destroy them. When a damaged cell happens to develop, the body has lost the ability to see it, and therefore can’t fix it.
Self-honesty is to your spirit as cancer detection is to your body. It is your mechanism to sort out what benefits you from what harms you. When you are dishonest with yourself, you willingly give away the mechanism God has given you to lead you to the most joy and happiness by turning off your ability to see what harms you.
Few people perceive the consequences of their character, and even fewer exercise the interest and intensity required to remedy it. This isn’t so much a problem of perception as it is a problem of honesty. “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.” (Proverbs 22:3)
Life will show you what you lack, even if you have only a little interest or intensity. “Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.” (Proverbs 13:23) Where people diverge from the abundant life is in their honest recognition of signs that things could be better. They commit the same mistakes over and over again. “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” (Proverbs 26:11)
Through challenging situations, life constantly shows us where we lack the tools required to have an abundant life. Unfortunately, it is almost always the case that we deny these signs. We convince ourselves that our present situation isn’t that bad, or that there is nothing we can do about it, or that it is someone else’s fault, or that there isn’t a better possible outcome, or that the other possible outcomes are not as good compared to what we have as they actually are. All of these perceptions are manifestations of dishonestly—not the kind of dishonesty a child shows when he says he didn’t steal the cookie he snuck, but the kind of dishonesty we exhibit when someone asks us how they look and we want them to feel better than reality supports.
This kind of dishonesty is dangerous when inflicted upon others, but it is most dangerous when inflicted upon oneself. When we engage in selfdeception we willfully blind ourselves to the only guidance system we have to direct us toward the most abundant life.
What do the signs of self-deception look like? A recurring inability to provide the necessities of life for ourselves and those in our care, the existence of circumstances that make us feel overwhelmed, and the experience of sadness that overcomes our ability to have joy and happiness.
54 And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is.
55 And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.
56 Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? (Luke 12)
Jesus was saying that people were hypocrites because they were clearly capable of critically examining the clues around them, yet they conveniently ignored the signs that contradicted what they wanted to believe.
Dishonesty is the failure to exercise the required amount of interest and intensity in response to signs that you are at odds with reality. When you lose your job, you can blame it on something that lies outside of your ability to change, or you can make changes that make you more resilient against the next time it could happen: you could obtain a more valuable skillset, you could develop a more robust mental capacity to handle hard things, you could choose a job where you are more valued, you could save enough money to get you through unexpected unemployment, etc. None of these things are easy and they all require faith, but there is certainly a way to act so that you are less susceptible to suffering should something similar happen again.
Be honest about your past. So many entrap themselves in fairy tales about the past, making it seem better than it really was by either deliberately maintaining what they know is an illusion or by artificially inflating what they know wasn’t as good as they wish.
God warned the prophet Lehi about Jerusalem’s impending destruction. He fled before it happened. His sons had different perspectives on this event, as they had different levels of honesty. Nephi said:
...if my father should dwell in the land after he hath been commanded to flee out of the land, behold, he would also perish. Wherefore, it must needs be that he flee out of the land. (1 Nephi 3:18)
Laman and Lemuel didn’t believe that had they stayed in Jerusalem they would also have been destroyed. Laman and Lemuel insisted on viewing things in an imaginary way, comparing their present situation, which was difficult, to a situation that was not possible:
20 And thou art like unto our father, led away by the foolish imaginations of his heart; yea, he hath led us out of the land of Jerusalem, and we have wandered in the wilderness for these many years; and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death; and it would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions.
21 Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy.
22 And we know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments, according to the law of Moses; wherefore, we know that they are a righteous people; and our father hath judged them, and hath led us away because we would hearken unto his words; yea, and our brother is like unto him. And after this manner of language did my brethren murmur and complain against us. (1 Nephi 17)
Own up to the mistakes you have made. It will both prevent you from making the same mistake again and also yield transferred wisdom to different future situations. Honesty about your past is the key to securing freedom from guilt. Admit your fault, change your principles so it will never happen again, and trust in the forgiveness of Jesus.
Willful blindness
It is possible for you to be totally blind to something you are doing wrong that ought to be obvious to you.
1 And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
8 And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
11 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. (2 Samuel 12)
David was an unusually wise man with a heart good enough that the Lord described it like his own. How did he not perceive that he was the man Nathan was talking about? Furthermore, why was Nathan even needed to help him see that he had done this, when David was so easily able to correctly judge the fictional man in Nathan’s account?
God, by default, shows us right and wrong. When we turn away from what he has told us in our conscience, we remove ourselves from that insight. This happens situationally, meaning we still have the capability to know right and wrong in other things. David had turned against his conscience in the matter of Bathsheba. Nathan’s story was sufficient to help him use the light he still had to judge the situation and then apply it to his own.
It is unlikely a servant of God is going to come help you discern between right and wrong—though they might. It is very likely, though, that you will be given many testaments of the fruits of your actions in your life and in the lives of those you know. Be wise enough to recognize these signs in your own life, and to learn from the mistakes of others by wisely applying them to your own decisions.
Self-discovery and honesty
Self-discovery comes in stages that can be compared to an astronaut in a space station. The first stage is investigating inside the space station, which is akin to how normal people interrogate life.
The second stage is investigating outside the space station while being tethered to it. This is akin to having defined periods of bounded contemplation, for example, when you are alone and clear-minded. In this stage, introspection is something that feels like it is outside of the “real” you. Here, only some of the products from your introspection cross the thought-action barrier into your external life.
The third stage is when you cut the tether to the space station. In this stage, you are consummately dedicated to self-discovery. Your contemplative self is your “real” self. Everything from your introspection makes it through the thought-action barrier into your external life.
Perhaps surprisingly, the amount of introspection you conduct and how much of it translates into external action is a factor of your honesty. It is easy to fill your life with the cumbersome activities and concerns of normal life. Like being on a hamster wheel, it will keep you occupied without really providing any lasting value. On the other hand, being consummately dedicated to real improvement yields a constant supply of precious fruit in all aspects of life:
8 Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me.
9 For I, the Lord, will cause them to bring forth as a very fruitful tree which is planted in a goodly land, by a pure stream, that yieldeth much precious fruit. (D&C 97)
It is possible to go through your entire life in what you think is deep change, but is really just cosmetic change to your exterior. This is not what life is about, and it can’t provide the deep joy attained by those who are constantly remodeling the interior of their character. It is honesty in these “inward” and “hidden” parts of ourselves where the deep and meaningful progress is made:
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (Psalm 51)
The inner voice that calls us toward introspective self-discovery and self-improvement is God’s voice. It is our conscience. As we follow that voice, we will improve and literally and figuratively come to God:
49 And the whole world lieth in sin, and groaneth under darkness and under the bondage of sin.
50 And by this you may know they are under the bondage of sin, because they come not unto me.
51 For whoso cometh not unto me is under the bondage of sin.
52 And whoso receiveth not my voice is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me.
53 And by this you may know the righteous from the wicked, and that the whole world groaneth under sin and darkness even now. (D&C 84)
We will fight the darkness, and we will free ourselves from sin, which is doing less than what we know is our best (see James 4:17).
Honestly maintaining your character in spite of life
Our dual quest in life is to 1) obtain a good character and 2) obtain the tools to maintain it in all circumstances life provides. Life will constantly barrage you with circumstances that make it challenging to do both. Can you maintain your character in spite of life?
There are plenty of illusions in life that will tempt you to act contrary to good character. When you find yourself confronted with a situation that causes you to deviate from good character, it ought to trigger you to search for tools to overcome that situation.
There are numerous circumstances that will compete with your desire to maintain a good character. These include the constant urge toward pleasure, the necessity of obtaining food and shelter, and the psychological challenges associated with letting go of previously held beliefs that you now know are inferior.
Are you totally honest with yourself and others? Life will provide numerous situations where hiding who you really are may seem like the best path. Maybe you have traits others do not like. Maybe you have traits that you do not like. It is best to honestly confront them. Life will provide numerous situations to say, feel, or act in a way that is out of alignment with your sincere understanding of reality in order to feel better than you would if you were honest. Don’t succumb to that temptation.
Are you sincerely interested in self-improvement? Your pride will tempt you again and again to believe that what you currently know is all there is to know. There are massively better outcomes available, and anything and anyone that helps you take a step in that direction is a gift to be sought and treasured. Your humility will be tested through new truth offered to you through correction that will crush your illusory self-image, test your limits, come through unlikely sources, and address unexpected topics. Love correction in any form it comes.
Are you consummately interested in the benefit of others? Life will continually assault you with opportunities to place the welfare of another person ahead of your own. Who you really are is not about who you feel you are, but about how you behave toward others and why you behave that way.
If you possess total honesty, relentless drive towards self-improvement, and enduring charity for others, you are by all means one of the rarest people on this planet.