1% Truthier
It drains your energy to not tell the truth.
There…I came right out and said it!
Directness has always been challenging for me. I grew up in an extremely loving and also pathologically people-pleasing family. As an empath to boot, I learned to not be direct. For much of my life, my measure of a successful interaction with another human was the size of the smile on their face…not kidding. Early on, I learned to avoid displeasing people at all costs. Since being uncensored often displeased people in my orbit, I experienced telling the truth as unsafe.
If you also learned to avoid conflict, not rocking the boat can seem like a winning strategy. But in reality, lying about who you are is exhausting. Not speaking your preference, not sharing how you feel in the moment, not voicing your opinion, especially when the stakes are high, has a devastating effect on your life force, your vitality, your health, your creativity, and your contribution to the world.
If you’re like, ‘um, yeah, this is me’, I feel you! I’ve made considerable progress in being truer to myself, but I have a ways to go…and I may always be working on it. If you long to be yourself in the world but it feels like a monumental task, I have a proposition for you.
I’m calling it the ‘1% truthier plan.’ What if you could make incremental steps towards showing the world who you are? A little more truthful bit by bit? Whether it’s voicing an opinion, making a choice that pleases you (just for the hell of it!), saying no to something you’d rather not do, or simply letting yourself be seen. You have infinite options, each one a baby step. What if you could take a ridiculously small step that feels ‘safe enough?’
This is the 1% truthier plan. You choose the unit of time. One day, one week, whatever you want. For each unit of time, take a step that feels 1% more truthful. Does 1% feel too scary? Make it .5%! Or .005%…no amount is too small if you’re headed in the right direction. Maybe your first move is to speak your opinion out loud to the mirror. Or to write it in your journal. And then give yourself a pat on the shoulder…you did it! The next one will be easier.
When you take 1% steps towards truth with regularity, you WILL see progress over time. You WILL become more comfortable speaking up. Or saying ‘no thank you.’ You may disappoint others from time to time, and you’ll discover it’s not the end of the world. You may even find that people start to like the truthier you better.
What will happen when you become yourself step-by-step? Maybe you’ll sign up for and run that 5K. Or start doing the work your heart calls you to do. Or repair your relationship, or find a new one that feels good to you. The possibilities are exponential. You get to create them. Right from your center. Right from your truth.
Want some accountability as you become truthier? Let’s get to work! Click here to schedule a free connection call with me and discover what it’s like to have an ally in your transformation. May your week be filled with self-love and deep insights! With love, Amy ♡♡♡