Richard Wright wrote, “I have
found that to tell the truth is
the hardest thing on earth. Harder than fighting in a war, harder than taking
part in a revolution.
“If you try it, you will find
that at times sweat will break upon you. You will find that even if you succeed
in discounting the attitudes of others to you and your life, you must wrestle
with yourself most of all. Fight with yourself. Because there will surge up in
you a strong desire to alter facts, to dress up your feelings.
“You’ll find that there are
many things you don’t want to admit about yourself and others.
“As your record shapes itself,
an awed wonder haunts you. And yet there is no more exciting an adventure than
trying to be honest in this way. The clean, strong feeling that sweeps you when
you’ve done it makes you know that.”
He was talking about the act of
writing, but his words are relevant even to those of us who just want to make a
few healthy changes in our lives.
The first thing we have to do to change is to tell the truth about where
we are now. We have to admit that
we are comfortable or lazy or weak, that no amount of evidence will make us
like or eat kale, that we would rather have dental surgery without anesthesia than
run a mile. Once we tell the
truth, we can see where we are and where we might want to start on making
change.
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