ASG # 11
The Person We Lie To The Most Is Ourselves.
I'm stupid.
I'm not good enough.
I'll never be good enough.
I can't do that.
I'll do that wrong.
Nobody likes me.
Nobody loves me.
I'll never amount to anything.
I'll always be left out.
I'll never have anyone.
We don't intentionally set out to lie to ourselves. We somehow have just embraced the idea that it's better to believe you can't than to believe you can.
Sometimes the idea came from what we heard growing up. Maybe someone whose opinion we valued told us these things. Maybe their intention was to protect us, to keep us from getting our hopes up too high and being disappointed; maybe their intention was to hurt us. Maybe somewhere in our lives we learned that if we believe really positive things about ourselves then we might start thinking we're better than others, or as I heard growing up, we might get the "big head". Wherever we learned to doubt our personal worth, this lie of all lies must go. What's at stake here is our very lives.
Since life tends to work much better when there's more truth running our lives than lies, let's take a moment and look at each of the lies I began with:
LIE: I'm stupid.
TRUTH: I do some stupid things sometimes.
LIE: I'm not good enough.
TRUTH: There are many things I do very well.
LIE: I'll never be good enough.
TRUTH: I am already good enough.
LIE: I can't do that.
TRUTH: I can't do that yet, but I will choose to learn to.
LIE: I'll do that wrong.
TRUTH: I might do it wrong, but I won't know until I try. If it turns out that I do it wrong, I will choose to try again.
LIE: Nobody likes me.
TRUTH: Somebody likes me, but I don't like them so they don't count.
LIE: Nobody loves me.
TRUTH: I want to be loved a certain way. No one loves me in the only way I am open to receiving love.
LIE: I'll never amount to anything.
TRUTH: I don't know this yet. The odds are astronomically in my favor that I will do something positive with my life.
LIE: I'll always be left out.
TRUTH: I may feel left out now and I will do whatever it takes for me to learn how I can be with others in a healthy and positive way.
LIE: I'll never have anyone.
TRUTH: I know there's a lid for every pot and that includes me. Just because I don't have my lid right now doesn't mean I never will.
Here's a last one to consider. Give up this lie, embrace the truth, and see your life change for the better:
LIE: I lie to myself.
TRUTH: I know this isn't in my best interest and I choose to work on telling myself my truth. I trust that I can do this and I trust me.
The Wisdom of Truth or Consequences
©Dr. Karen McCleskey
