I will never be caught refusing to take a long hard look at myself. If someone takes the time and the risk to tell me about something I am doing that is problematic or hurtful or upsetting in some way I will always hear them. I will open myself up to the reality that I need to change something about what I am doing if for no other reason than it is causing someone else pain. And then to the best of my ability I will make that change. I guarantee that at the very least I will stop what it is I am doing that is harming someone else. Sometimes it is hard to make the connection and it may take a couple of tries before I can see the pattern well enough to catch duplicate incidents.
On the other hand, I will never be caught compromising something I believe in because it makes someone else uncomfortable. I will never be caught choosing to avoid confrontation because it’s just easier.
I say what I mean, I mean what I say, but I will try not to say it mean. I am only human and sometimes I do. For that I will apologize. However I will never be caught unsaying any part but the part where I was mean.
Learning to navigate that space between my needs and the needs of others is tricky. But I will never ignore the fact that my behavior affects others. I am responsible for my actions and my words and I have an obligation as a social being to take the feelings of others into consideration. I also have an obligation to myself. But these are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
In the words of Polonius in Hamlet "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."( I like to say any one personally)
And my true self seeks to be compassionate and kind as well as honest and resolute in my convictions
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