Honesty is the best policy

In my twenties and thirties I had a phrase—I suppose these days I might have called it a mantra—which I kept to myself, but always tried to live by: Honesty is a good policy, but tact is a better one.

It was really a reminder to be a nice guy. Be kind. In the long run it's better to be kind than right, right?

Maybe that's true when it comes to your dealings with other people, but when it comes to yourself it is wrong... dead wrong.

If you want to improve you really have to be honest with yourself. You have to admit what you suck at, and what you're doing wrong; what you keep doing wrong.

You don't need to do it constantly, you don't need to dwell on it. But regularly, preferably once a day or once a week—try both and choose the one that works for you without dragging yourself down—you need to be brutally honest with yourself, think about what's not working, and figure out what you need to change to move forwards and improve, and to get bolder as you get older.

It's honestly the only way.

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