The Best Results Demand Truth
This week is the slow beginning of a new chapter for me, and turning the page to start something new requires making shifts - sometimes major shifts - in our lives.
And such major shifts require honesty.
Sometimes it’s a new job/business/work. Sometimes it’s people and relationships. But every time, making huge changes will require truth.
Perhaps you’ll need to be truthful with another person about your needs, challenges you’re facing, or how someone or something is affecting you.
But you always need to be truthful with yourself about those things.
Truth impacts our results.
When what you need to do is uncomfortable, or scary, or anything else unhelpful, you’re more inclined to avoid doing what needs to be done. And that limits your possibilities. Think about it this way:
If you were stuck with a decision, and thought you had 3 options in front of you about what to do next, how would you decide what to choose?
If someone (like I am right now) were to challenge your assumption that you had only 3, or ask how you got to those 3, and it turned out that ANY amount of unhelpful or untruthful thoughts/feelings led to that landscape, how would you respond?
If it turned out that a new and better option was revealed by being honest - probably by being honest with yourself first and foremost, but maybe with another person too - how would it feel to know that there were in fact more than 3 options?
Now, regardless of the actual number of options, if you were able to admit that new steps first or a new path forward was possible due to more honesty, wouldn’t you want to explore that? Especially if those results might be better ones, because you’d have a better assessment of the landscape?
The importance of being honest isn’t new to anyone, I’m sure. Let’s take that a level deeper though.
Where attention goes, energy flows. If your attention is on avoiding something you don’t want, like a scary conversation with a boss or partner, your energy will be on the scary thing, making it, or any other undesirable results actually more likely to happen.
If it’s on what you do want, then that’s what is most likely to happen.
Though, what we do want the most may be locked behind the truth. A truth we might be avoiding.
Therefore 👇
The best results demand truth.
If you’ve read my free e-book, you’ll know that I have a number of rules for my life that I’ll share with others when I think they’re helpful. I created the one I’m about to share with you when reflecting on how people around me lived in constant states of avoidance when not being truthful or living by their truth. The rule is:
Rule #19: You must have the courage to do what needs to be done, if you want the results that your most courageous self would demand. You must have the will to do what needs to be done, if you want the results that your greatest self would demand.
“What needs to be done” is whatever is most honest. Even if it’s uncomfortable.
This is of enormous importance for everyone who wants incredible results - it is therefore of utmost importance for leaders.
A leader is, at the end of the day, doing everything they do because they’re aiming to achieve a result. How you lead, why you lead, who you lead - all of it is in service of the result that you and yours want.
So here’s something for you to try this week: if you have a challenge or important decision come up for you and you aren’t sure how to respond, ask yourself — “Am I being totally truthful about this challenge and what it means to me right now?”
Let me know how you get on ;)
Lots of love, and here’s to your success! -Seven
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About Seven
Hey friends! I’m Seven - I write about challenges and opportunities affecting leaders across business. I release a weekly newsletter and a podcast, helping folks understand the leadership journeys and challenges out there, so we can better understand our purpose, place, and potential. The goal: to learn about what it means to be a leader, to support leaders, to find leaders, and to discover the leader within.
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Lots of love, and here’s to your success!