The Most Frequent Lie in the World

What is the most frequent lie in the world?

...

It is the answer to the most frequent question: How are you?

“I’m fine.”

“I’m good.”

“Not bad.”

When I am lying, I am holding up a shield that protects me from hurting.

However, the shield is made of glass and only works in the short term.

If I use it for long, the impact becomes too big.

Then, the shield will shatter in pieces and the glass will painfully pierce my skin.

While I am bleeding, I realize that this ‘protection’ is what eventually hurts me the most.

Short-term comfort leads to long-term discomfort.

What is my solution?

Courage.

Being more expressive about what is going on inside me.

When my relationship crashed, I was having a hard time.

I wasn’t sure how many colleagues I should share it with, if at all.

Isn’t work about productivity, commercial goals and political interests?

Yes.

But work is also about connection, collaboration and shared values.

I ended up sharing my personal challenge with more people than I thought I would.

I’m glad I did so, and in the next paragraph I will tell you why.

How opening up helped me

Firstly, by being more open, I helped people that were important to me to understand my situation.

The alternative was to hold the shield of glass in front of me.

As people would be able to see through the transparent shield, they would sense something was going on.