Why you should practice truth-telling in friendships

Honesty is the best policy, however, in many cases that is much easier said than done.

Being completely honest is something that’s very hard to do. One of the main reasons why we might withhold the truth from someone is that we want to avoid hurting their feelings.

The reality is, avoiding honesty actually does more damage to a friendship than we might think. It’s very close to lying even when you had the intention of protecting the other person’s emotions.

I think we would all agree that it’s much better to get your feelings hurt for a few minutes instead of living a lie.

No matter how difficult it may be, you shouldn’t be afraid to always be honest with your friends for countless reasons including the ones on this list.

1. It’s one of the foundations of a friendship

Some of the building blocks of a friendship include kindness, loyalty, respect and compassion. Truth telling is connected to all of them because when you’re honest, everything else flows out of it.

Without honesty, a friendship can’t stand because it will always be an unspoken expectation the moment you form a bond with someone. You’re already hoping that the person will tell you the truth even when it hurts sometimes.

2. It builds trust

It’s heartbreaking to find out your friends felt differently about a certain thing when all this while you thought otherwise. It will leave you wondering how long they have felt that way and that affects the level of trust between you.

On the other hand, a friendship that encourages truth-telling gives room for the bond to grow because you know you can trust their opinion. You’ll be more comfortable with each other when you allow the no judgment zone of trust and truth telling.

3. It nurtures integrity

What we learn from our experiences with friends, relatives, parents and others shapes our attitude on life. When you have a culture of truth telling in your friendship circle, you nurture the quality of integrity within yourselves.

You get to see the amazing benefits that come with honesty and witness the serious consequences of ignoring it.

You’ll be more encouraged to identify and correct those areas in your life that needed better standards of integrity. This could change your work life and so many other areas that need an adjustment.

4. It’s a sign of love

Love isn’t always about making someone feel good. It often means that we need to hurt someone’s feelings a little in order to get the truth out.

Although being honest 100% percent is quite hard, you can still learn some techniques that make things better for you and the receiver.

The main thing you need to look at is the delivery. This is where you can find the balance between being a loving and straight forward friend.

Use a calm tone and kind words. That will get the message across properly and make them more receptive as well.

5. It’s important for personal growth

There are times where you will be the receiver. For most people, the first instinct is to resist but eventually you calm down and internalize what your friends have to say.

An example is when your friends have an intervention to talk to you about your drinking habits. That will make you realize that there’s something you need to work on.

Those small moments can turn your life around and positively influence your habits. There will come a time where you’ll thank them for being real with you.