Some truth about the truth:

After weeks of promotion, setting up Auto-Responder emails, and driving my Twitter and Facebook friends crazy, it’s finally here. Tonight I’ll be offering my free teleseminar:

Telling the Truth in Extravagant Ways

I have no intention of promoting it further in this short post (other, than of course, the reality that I’m hitting “publish” in mere sentences). What I want to do is share some (though hardly all) of what I’ve learned as I’ve built up to, created, edited, and prepared for this event.

• There is a world of difference between talking about telling the truth and actually doing it.
  • I’ve felt that ache as I’ve thought about my past, my present, and even what I know will yet be true about my future. The commitment to consistently letting one’s heart lead the way, speak out loud, and be seen is no small thing.
• Truth is not a solitary act.
  • Though there is powerful aspect of telling the truth to oneself, it nearly always emerges – or doesn’t – in the context of relationship, both for good and for ill. As I have told my truth more and more consistently, I’ve been gifted with so many who have affirmed that in me. There have been others who have been less thrilled. Still, I have not been alone.
• The truth is, I have to market, sell, and promote the things I believe in.
  • I might have the best idea on the face of the planet, but if I don’t talk about it, tweet about it, post about it, and push-push-push it, it’s only mine to know and experience. Since we’re telling the truth here, that’s not the easiest thing in the world for me. Still, it’s a necessity. Now that I’m (nearly) done promoting the heck out of this thing, I’m grateful. I’ve learned. I’ve been stretched. I’ve seen results. And I’m even more deeply convinced: telling the truth matters.
• Truth requires context. It’s complex.
  • Many have said that truth is truth; that it’s a given within which we either accede or escape. But it’s just not that simple. Harriet Lerner describes this perfectly in her book The Dance of Deception: A Guide to Authenticity and Truth-Telling in Women’s Relationships when she talks of her mother’s long illness.
    • In truth, I did not experience myself as a “liar.” Or more accurately, I knew I was lying…but I told myself I was pretending. We were, perhaps, all pretending – the doctors who withheld information from my mother (for her own sake), my parents who withheld information from us children (for our sake), and the children, myself included, who didn’t persist in asking questions (for the family’s sake). We were a family like any other, with strengths and vulnerabilities, doing our best to stay afloat in the face of massive anxiety about my mother’s – and our own – survival.
• Telling the truth requires grace, courage, and time.
  • We may know-that-we-know-that-we-know what our truths are, but that does not mean that they are simple to act on. We have to be kind to ourselves as we move ever-closer, ever-more-consistently into truth-telling. We have to take many real and metaphorical deep breaths. And sometimes we have to wait and be patient – with others, yes, but primarily with ourselves.
• Telling the truth is extravagant.
  • More on that tonight…
    

I do hope you’ll join me. For those of you who are: I’ll talk to you soon! ‘Lots of truth to be told – in extravagant ways!

Tagged as: blogging, courage, extravagant, Facebook, grace, honesty, teleseminar, truth, truth-telling, Twitter

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