Can you handle the truth?

Today’s question was inspired by the Jack Nicholson film A Few Good Men, and the famous courtroom scene.  When I have a heart-to-heart talk with others about truth, and connect with that powerful feeling about what it can truly do in our lives, I always hear that booming voice in the courtroom – “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!”  Even years after seeing the movie, it still comes to my mind!

These words are really an important statement, and they beg us to ask the question of ourselves, Can I handle the truth? 

Many of us do see truth in that way that Jack Nicholson’s character is speaking to.  We want the truth when it is convenient, when it doesn’t challenge us, and doesn’t make us look at ourselves.  I am here today to point out that if there is some new place we want to go in life, we will absolutely have to do it. 

We need to look at our internal relationship with the truth.  We need to develop that relationship.

When I started my self-help travels, I noticed that I was really just looking to validate myself.  I was reading these books in order to find what I was already doing and to try and convince myself that I was A-OK.  But at the same time, I sought out those books because I was unhappy, and there were things I wanted to change.  I realized that instead of looking for the things that were working, it would serve me better to look for the things that weren’t.  To face the truth.

I don’t agree with using the truth to criticize yourself.  That’s not at all what I think the truth is for.  What the truth can do is give you clues about things that need to shift internally to take you where you want to go in life. 

We make choices and we experience results, and in the middle we sometimes act like there is this mysterious black box.  What I need to tell you is that there is science happening in that black box – there is a logic to what happens!  (This is what my Logical Evolution Framework covers in detail.)  Our life is not randomly shooting out results.  So when we decide to peer into that black box, we are able to reach our goals more quickly.

I raise this question today in case there is a place you are trying to reach in life that has not been happening.  There are a few clues that can tell you whether there might be some things to discover internally.  These three clues are if you find yourself blaming external factors, other people, or luck (randomness) for your results.  If you find yourself doing these things, I think you’ll find value in stopping to ask what is going on internally, really.  Stop and consider, with kindness toward yourself, that we must have a part in our results.  The only way to discover more about that is to go inward.

The truth you are avoiding will push you, but luckily if approached with an accepting heart, it tends to push you right in the direction of your goals!

Let the truth push you in the direction of your goals.  And let the answer to that question “Can you handle the truth?” be “YES!”