Becoming the best version of yourself requires radical honesty with yourself. The ability to accept who you are, even the bad—the ability to recognize your faults even if they are embarrassing or don’t feel good is critical. Being honest with yourself is the secret to achieving your goals and living your fullest and best life.
Not sure how to accomplish this? Learn how to be more honest with yourself by making time to include the following strategies in your daily routines.
- Be Accountable for Your Mistakes
It will be painful, but the first step to being honest with yourself is admitting when you are wrong. It feels so much better to make up excuses or put the blame on someone else; however, it never leads to anything good. Relationships and careers are often sacrificed because people can’t admit when they are wrong. If they can’t admit their wrongs, they will never change it or do what needs to be done to be successful.
- Become Self-Aware
It takes practice to be aware of your thoughts and emotions so that you can regulate them. Learning to manage your thoughts and resolve your feelings will help to reveal your true self. The more you do this, you will begin to love and accept yourself, and feel the happier in your own skin.
- Be Proud of Your Highs and Lows
Making mistakes and achieving goals both achieve the same outcome. They build character. They are leading you to understand yourself better and the world around you. The more you understand, the more it’s evident when you are dishonest. If it’s clear and obvious, there is no way you can or will avoid it. While the lows may feel physically and emotionally challenging, without facing them, you will never solve the problem or do what needs to be done to achieve your goals.
- Practice with Journaling & Tapping
It might be hard to believe, but self-honesty takes work and practice. You can learn a lot through journaling. Schedule just five minutes each day and ask yourself different questions. A few ideas include:
- How do you feel right this moment?
- Why do I feel this why?
- What does that mean about me?
- What emotions or thoughts are overwhelming me right now?
- What is the emotional intensity of the thoughts or feelings 0-10?
As you answer these questions, rate the emotional intensity of each one on a scale of 0-10 based on how bad it feels, 10 is bad. Then begin to do some tapping to neutralize the negative impact of the issue checking in after each round of tapping until the emotional impact is a zero.
Don’t shy away from the parts of you that you don’t like. Changing and growing simply requires saying what’s true and then following a plan.
Remember, if you can’t be honest with yourself, you are unlikely to grow and overcome the challenges necessary to get what you desire out of life.
