NormsMilfordBlog

From a recent post to the Jack’s Winning Words blog comes today’s inspiration – “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”  (Thomas Jefferson)

We all amass a book of wisdom over our lives, however, the books of wisdom for different people don’t have the same chapters nor do they read the same.  I can’t think of a better first chapter for our book of wisdom than that suggested by Jefferson. The honesty that he was referring to must include being honest with yourself first and then you can be honest with all others in your life.

Wisdom is defined as

 – the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.

synonyms: sagacity, intelligence, sense, common sense, shrewdness, astuteness, smartness, judiciousness, judgment, prudence, circumspection

 -the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment.

 – the body of knowledge and principles that develops within a specified society or period.

 So, it is possible to accumulate experiences and knowledge in our lives and still not be honest with either ourselves or others. I’m not sure of the wisdom of that course of action. Those who are not honest with themselves and others often weave webs of intrigue and lies that eventually they become caught up in themselves. Being honest and transparent in the things that your do and the decisions that you make means that you don’t have to try to remember all of the lies and deceptions that you may have engaged in with others.

Honesty with yourself is the cornerstone of self-awareness and character. One doesn’t have to be “down” on oneself to be honest, it is just important that you accept yourself as you are and use that starting point to move forward. Not everyone can be one of the “beautiful people”; however, everyone can be a beautiful person and that starts with them accepting themselves and not trying to be something that they aren’t. You will often hear someone referred to as being “genuine” and that is undoubtedly an honest person. Such a person may admire another person, but they don’t try to be that other person, because they are comfortable with who they are.

Today’s inspirational challenge is to stop and take an honest look at yourself. Do you like what you see? Are you comfortable with what you see? Are there, maybe, some things that you might change to become even happier with who you are and where you are going in life? What’s holding you back from making those changes? Be honest with yourself and it will be easier for you to be honest with those around you. What a wise thing to do. You’ve added a new chapter to your book of wisdom.

Have a great day of honesty.