Of course, you must have heard people often say that honesty is the best policy. Ever wondered what that means? Have you ever asked yourself: why is honesty important?
Honesty is an essential principle or behavior we must adopt. Without honesty, the world would have been more chaotic and violent. Honesty serves as a critical tool to make our world safer and better.
In this article, I will provide a comprehensive outlook of why honesty is important, but first, we must understand the concept of honesty. Therefore, I urge you to read this article with the mindset of learning new things about honesty.
What Is Honesty?
Honesty means being truthful and morally upright. That is, an honest individual has decided to always say what is right, no matter the consequences. When you are being honest, people may sometimes not know so.
This is the part where your conscience plays an important role. An honest person exhibits good character and morals. They are guided by solid principles, which mainly influence their lives.
They speak the truth always and avoid being sentimental or biased. Being honest makes you reliable, trustworthy, and highly respected.
Why Honesty Is The Best Policy
Honesty is one of the most important values a person can uphold. Honesty can bring out other positive attributes in an individual, including kindness, love, respect, and discipline.
At the same time, it can help curb certain negative traits, including lies, deceit, greed, hatred, and disloyalty. Honest people are some of the most sincere and truthful individuals you would ever come across.
They are trustworthy too. When you gain the trust and loyalty of an honest person, it’s almost impossible that they would do something wrong to break that trust.
Honesty is the best policy because it is the foundation of our core principles and values. It encompasses all positive attributes human beings possess and can take people to incredible heights.
Reasons Why Honesty Is Important
In this section of the article, I’ll be breaking down and highlighting ten reasons why you should consider being honest and why it is important. The reasons are given below:
1. Honesty Helps In Building Lasting Relationships
The best relationships tend to last for a lifetime but have you ever wondered what keeps a relationship going? One of the reasons is that the individuals involved have built the relationship on honesty.
It’s almost impossible to continue being friends with someone you don’t find trustworthy because they have a history of being dishonest.
It is also difficult to live with a partner who has several times lied to you about important things. Without honesty, relationships won’t last.
The best that could happen will be when one of the people involved will show enough patience to see whether the other individual would change. When that doesn’t happen, the relationship will most likely be put to a halt.
For over ten years, I have known Amy. It is safe to say that she is my best friend. Before I met Amy, I have had other close friends. However, I wouldn’t know whether my other friends are honest because of the number of times I have caught them in a lie.
It is simply because I no longer trusted some of them due to the untrue things they told me along the line. Yet, Amy has been around and won’t leave anytime soon.
This is because she has proven to be one of the most honest people I’ve ever met. We often have disagreements, and sometimes they turn to heated arguments.
Still, she would never say anything apart from what she considers the truth to me. I think that is perhaps the main reason we’ve been close friends.
I can be assured that I have someone in my life I can talk to about something and would get honest, unbiased responses filled with truth.
2. Honesty Promotes Trust And Respect
One of the important reasons of honesty is that you will earn the trust and respect of other people. In a world filled with deceit and greed, one of the hardest things people do is trust others.
To earn people’s trust, you must have shown a great deal of honest behavior. Once you earn their trust, you will automatically earn their respect.
People understand that it is tough to find honest people these days, and when they do find one, they hold them in high regard. During my college years, an acquaintance of mine interned at a law firm where he was given the role of a personal assistant.
During those years, he earned the trust of his boss because he always told the truth. If he failed to complete a particular task or did not meet a deadline, he always owned up without making excuses.
Although sometimes he got reprimanded by his boss, it didn’t stop him from telling the truth. As a result, he earned an award of “The Most Outstanding Personality Of The Year” during the company’s end of the year event.
Before he left, his boss called him to his office one afternoon and offered him an open door should he decide to come back. So, no matter what happens in your life, don’t ever stop being honest. It will take you to great heights.
3. Honesty Helps You Grow
In learning why it is crucial to be honest, you have to realize that it can help you become a better version of yourself. When you practice honesty and avoid being deceitful, you will grow in many aspects of your life.
This is because it is not an easy routine, to be honest, all the rest of your life. Sometimes, you may face challenges or temptations that could make you consider not telling the truth.
However, your ability to always avoid such temptations can define how much you have grown as an individual. Honesty helps you grow in different aspects, including your career, the moral values you uphold, and your ability to fight off the urge to say untrue things.
4. Honesty Teaches Valuable Lessons
From the lives of many people who have ever been honest or dishonest, we can learn valuable lessons. Some of these lessons often show why it is important to be honest.
You could be motivated to live an honest life because of what you read in the news. Perhaps you heard about how a company salesman was promoted to manager because of his honest act.
Possibly, it could be the other way around. You probably read about a company CEO who was sacked due to his dishonest behavior.
In both instances, we can pick out a vital lesson: the importance of being honest. Therefore, it is left for us to decide whether or not we would implement such lessons in our everyday lives.
5. Honesty Is Inspirational and Motivational
There is a certain feeling of inspiration and motivation you get from being honest or when you hear the success stories of other honest people.
Such feelings push you to do better and motivate you to continue being honest in all that you do.
6. Being Honest Makes You More Confident
One of the top reasons why it is important to be honest is that honesty gives an added level of confidence to your personality. What do you have to be afraid of when you know you are living in your truth?
Today, some of the most confident people aren’t so because they are very expressive. No. They display so much confidence because they know they are honest in their dealings, and nobody can accuse them of insincerity or deceit.
When you are honest, you become more confident in yourself because you do not have to lie or involve in illicit activities to get what you want.
7. Honesty Builds A Good Reputation
Those who have upheld the value of truth and honesty always have their names written in gold. That is, they will be celebrated for being advocates of truth even long after their demise.
They cement a strong reputation that could also positively impact their generation. Martin Luther King Jnr. was an anti-racist activist who fought so hard to eradicate racism and discrimination against African Americans.
He built a strong reputation by being a sincere man and a morally upright individual in his quest for justice. Even after his death, America still celebrates him.
Other examples of people in history who built a strong reputation are Marcus Garvey, Aristotle, Galileo Galilei, and many others.
In our world today, you will discover that most people who have good reputations achieved such feat because of their honest and truthful lifestyle.
Hence, in learning why it is important to be honest, you must consider building a solid reputation for yourself through honesty.
8. Being Honest Sets You Apart From Others
When you are honest, you are unique. Unique people always have a way of distinguishing themselves from the crowd.
When people notice that you are a genuine individual, they will most likely start giving you a lot of respect. Respect, in turn, makes you unique and distinguishable.
9. People Won’t Take Your Words For Granted
An honest individual doesn’t only command the respect of other people; they are also held in high esteem by such people.
For example, when an honest person makes an intelligent suggestion during a conversation, their words are often considered crucial.
This is because people know they have made such statements with honesty and are not biased while giving an opinion.
10. You Will Be Proud Of Yourself
Honesty brings a certain level of self-pride. When you are always honest in your dealings, you will be proud of it.
Self-pride also has positive attributes, including boosting your confidence levels, making you mentally and emotionally healthy, and other factors.
Conclusion
I am sure you now know a couple of reasons why honesty is essential. I encourage you to live your life-giving people many reasons to trust your words, respect your opinions, and hold you in high regard.
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