bcg blog

Your Truth or Mine?

The truth is … 

You proclamations regarding truth all the time. 
Someone, out of the kindness of their heart, setting you straight on all the things you’ve got wrong - the lies that you believe. As if, by some miraculous gift, they have a truth that no one else is privy to. 

I know I’m guilty of it. 
Heck, I even write blogs about things that I believe to be the truth. 

In all honesty, I don’t know. I share as a means to clarify my thoughts and to help anyone that might have similar experiences and view life through a similar lens as me, but to say it’s the truth isn’t accurate.

It would be more accurate to say it’s “my truth”.

Why Should We Care?
It seems we each have our own form of the truth. Looking around and observing the behaviors of other people, we begin to see this discrepancy more clearly. Decisions others make and actions they take oftentimes make little sense with respect to our values, beliefs, and focus in life. Yet, to them, it appears perfectly clear.

A large part of our draw to certain people and groups is because they share a similar truth as we do. Clearly, we prefer to gather with people in line with our version of the truth rather than with people who oppose our truth. The importance of the safety and security a common truth offers is difficult to overstate. We are more likely to change our truth than we are to accept being ostracized and eliminated from the group.

A common truth is central to the fabric of every team. In teams we ask each individual to prioritize the team over themselves. A truth such as the team being more important than the individual must be shared or the potential of the team is compromised. The humility to embrace this truth could determine our role, impact, or even place on the team.

If our truth is not in line with that of the team we could be joining, we should opt for another team or the team should opt for a different team member. Too often salary, title, or benefits cloud our ability to choose teams that match our truths. Nothing is more important than the alignment of our truths.

Before we can choose our team however, we need to know our truth. 
And, that’s not quite as easy as we think it is.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Authentic means genuine or real; of undisputed origin. A search for authenticity is at the heart of every personal leadership journey, as it should be. However, this is not a journey for the weak. We will need to answer some tough questions on our way to the enlightenment that authenticity, and our personal truth, provides. Here are a few probing questions to get you started:

• What makes your truth right and my truth wrong?
  
  • If we are all left to determine our own truth, who says which is right? Why would my truth be any more accurate than your truth? Or are we supposed to just navigate life in a silo, working off of the truth we’ve created? To go a step further, what makes right, right or wrong, wrong along this path? We each get to decide that on our own as well?
    

• Is there a universal truth?
  
  • I believe yes, but convincing you is not a path to helping you decide. Presenting and sharing is a much better approach because unwavering belief is never forced on us, but rather chosen as part of our own freewill. However, if you identify with the problems that arise from us each having our own truth, this proposition must offer a seeming legitimate resolution.
    

• Do you have to choose?
  
  • Yes - indecision is a decision. If you don’t decide, the world will decide for you. Left to chance you will either operate on the truth of someone else or your own self-governing truth. I believe everyone realizes the truth at some point in their life. The question isn’t if we will find it, but when will we find it. The sooner, the better.
    

We don’t know but we would be wise to find the truth. More often than not, our truths are nothing more than strongly held opinions. The truth is the guiding light in our journey through life. If you haven’t found it, now is time to start looking for it.

Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps before its release in March 2024. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!

For more information on building excellence in your teams, visit us at www.bluecollargrit.com. 
We would love to know how we could help!

​