The Honesty Project

If you have ever watched the Lie to Me, especially the first season, you would know there's a character who goes through a stage of telling absolutely no lies. Of course, this led to hilarity and some awkwardness since that kind of brutal honesty is such a foreign concept for people.

I've decided that I would like to be more honest. So many people say things to me that I don't want to hear and that I simply don't have the ability to respond to. They will tell me things that hurt me or that they should not be telling me at all. Sometimes I just get upset with the words used or the lack of communication.

From now on instead of responding with " :) " I'm going to start telling them that I have no comment, that what they said upset me or that I am unable to efficiently cope with their comments and will subsequently need to walk away, put my phone down or hang up the call.

Part of me is curious to see what reaction I will get. Part of me is scared beyond belief because I try to please everyone all the time and this decision sure as hell won't please anyone any of the time.

Look at this project like purging. I'm cleansing my conscience of all the things I hold inside, bottle up. Maybe you'd like to try it too?

Don't get me wrong this project doesn't mean I will be rude to people and use the "I'm just being honest" excuse. It's not about undermining anyone or pulling their safety rug out from under them. It's definitely not a "free pass" to say cruel things.
It's merely about expressing my honest reaction instead of closing up and ruminating about how much better your life is to my very lonely one. Again, let me stress, I'm not going to say anything to deliberately hurt you, make fun of you, degrade you or humiliate you.
If being honest does illicit that kind of response from you, I will be the first to apologise. Just know, however, that I won't take back what I have said.

This period may end up losing me friends, might make some friendships stronger or it might just alienate me from even more people. Either way, I need to be honest because the other option is getting me nowhere other than feeling more insane.

Feel free to test this honesty thing. You can ask me anything you like and I will reply without the confines of "socially acceptable lies". Keep in mind you shouldn't ask me anything you don't really want to know the answer to. Doing that will only result in your own hurt and I have no responsibility over your actions.