Tell me the Truth
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
C. S. Lewis
What lies beneath that restless feeling to know what you want, to work out finally who you are and what you should be doing?
I believe that underneath all this is a desperate hunger to be you. You and not simply a collection of habits and beliefs picked up from your friends and your culture. You long to be you, grounded in who you are, doing what you want to do with an assured sense of purpose. And yet that seems so far away, so how do you begin to get there?
It starts with telling the truth. Not becoming one of those blunt arseholes who’s always talking about themselves and being offensive with a half chuckle “I’m only being honest” or “At least I’m honest”.
No, not one of those. Instead one of those people who knows themselves really well because they always tell themselves the truth, good and bad. This is hard and doing it is both very rare and refreshingly original. It’s bad to badmouth someone, to tear at them and talk them down and equally bad to fail to talk the good you see, to discount or minimise strengths in others. And of course it starts with you consistently telling the truth to yourself. The truth mind, not too bad, not too good, simply how you are.
And then venturing out with this truth into the real world. Starting very small and very slow. You’re out for a meal. Tell the truth to yourself – “I want chicken” and then say it out loud “I want the chicken”.
When you’ve finished the chicken notice what you’ve done. You told the truth to yourself, you trusted your instincts you said it out loud and made it into a physical reality. Where else could you use this pattern?
