Why You Need Honest Friends

“In the multitude of counselors, there is safety”

Good morning!

Have you ever wished someone would stop being polite to you and simply tell you the truth?

Simply being polite to strangers is a huge part of social etiquette; you want to treat those you don’t know with respect and honor them with kind words and withhold any judgments, insults, or criticisms which you might have for them.

Now, that’s all fine and dandy, and really, everyone should be polite to strangers, but when it comes to friends — that core group of people which you invite into the closest, most intimate parts of your life — don’t you want them to be honest with you?

I mean, if a stranger looked at the way you dress and called you out, saying, “Don’t you look all high and mighty dressed up like that?” you’d completely disregard them because their words carry no weight with you. And yet, if a friend were to tell you, “Hey, you do look a little pretentious, you might wanna lose the cap,” you should probably listen.

If you have healthy friendships, your friends want the best for you; no really, they do. When you truly are friends with someone, they want to see you succeed just as much as you want them to succeed, so they’ll push you towards your goals, steer you away from cliffs you could fall off of, and give you sound advice that’s meant to help, not hurt.

Listen, I don’t know if you’d rather just have a group of yes-men/yes-women who agree with every simple decision you make and simply validate your life choices, but when it comes to my life and my friends, I prefer to be told the truth; I want my friends to tell me if and when I’m being prideful; I want to be told to tone it down a bit and maybe encourage someone’s efforts when critiquing their work; I want someone to say, “Hey man, what you just said was beyond honest, you actually hurt someone’s feelings” so I can rectify the situation and apologize.

If you want to live life to the fullest, you must surround yourself with people that are not only willing to tell you the truth, but ones that you can put your whole trust into and allow them to actually tell you the truth without retaliating or perceiving their words as personal attacks.

“In the multitude of counselors, there is safety.”

God bless you, have a great day!