It’s been more than a month since I started this experiment, no half-truths, no lies, on the 31st of December. It’s not nearly as easy as I would have expected it to be. For the first few days I caught myself saying some half-truths and even some small lies without even realizing I was saying them.
This made me realize that half-truths were more of a habit for me than an exception to my regular speech. Most of them were just a way to protect other people’s feelings by saying the things I believe in a polite way, masking the truth behind some pretty words, but at the same time losing a bit of my actual beliefs and feelings in the process.
I have also realized that most of the lies I said were, just as the half-truths, meant to keep from hurting other people’s feelings. Most of them were omission lies and not really an attempt to distort facts.
After the first two weeks this constant check to cut out all half-truths and lies made me more present in the conversation, more aware of the interaction and more opened. Many conversations have become more meaningful and deeper than they would usually turn out to be. This is one of the things I’m most excited about.
I said things I never thought I would say before, just because I would think of other people’s feelings rather than my own.
As it comes to others, some people seemed perfectly fine with my new approach, most of them already knew about my experiment, others felt offended by my blunt way of expressing things (some of them I think will never call again), and others were just surprised at first but seemed to appreciate the honesty more than it bothered them.
One month gone and I am still working on having my first full day without a single half-truth or lie. 11 more months to make it happen.