Lying and Cheating

I've had such a huge problem with lying, because I'd been taught my whole life to be completely honest. Now that I'm getting into the world and observing what is going on, I have to say, people lie a lot, all the time, and even good people often spare you the truth. In our culture, telling the truth at all times is considered rude. You are supposed to "modify" the truth, which is practically lying. The ability to lie must be some critical evolutionary mechanism to fit in society, because it is so wildly popular. One day when I have kids, I'll have to decide whether it's a good idea to teach them that lying is bad, because they will encounter is all the time anyway and will just be at a competitive disadvantage with all the people who were born and raised liars.

Apparently, JT is back with Vienna. I don't know when he was going to tell me. Seriously, Vienna is my friend, you thought I wasn't going to find out? What's wrong with you?

Now I want you to look at those same numbers from a different perspective. Take every rating that isn’t a 9 or 10, cross it off, and replace it with a 1. So now each of them must be a 1, 9, or 10.
You see, if you can’t rate a given area of your life a 9 or 10, then obviously you don’t have what you really want in that area. This can be especially hard to admit when you think you have a 7. A 7 looks pretty good at first glance, but the true 9s and 10s are way beyond 7s. The 10s are so far out there that you probably can’t even see them from the position of a 7.

A 7 is what you get when you allow too much falsehood and denial to creep into your life. It’s a phony rating to begin with, a 1 in disguise. Either you have what you want, or you don’t. A 6, 7, or 8 is the answer you give when you know you don’t have what you want, but you aren’t ready to face up to it yet.

I know this sounds unreasonably harsh, but based on my own experience as well as what I’ve observed in others, people commonly rate some part of their lives a 7 (or thereabouts) when they’ve disconnected themselves from the truth. A 7 is a job instead of a purpose driven career. A 7 is a comfortable living arrangement instead of a deeply fulfilling relationship. A 7 is an income that covers your basic expenses instead of providing true abundance. When you rate any part of your life as a 7, you’re really saying: “This isn’t what I want, but I’m not sure I can do better, so I’ll pretend it’s good enough. It could be worse.” However, the truth is that if you aren’t experiencing what you want, you’re already in the worst possible situation.