Honesty is the best policy.
Staying truthful to self and others, not cheating self and others is what is called being honest. As rightly said by Benjamin Franklin, honesty is the best policy! And this proverb holds much relevance even today and shall continue to hold relevance forever.
When Simran was a kid, she had gone to a near by shop to buy some chocolates. There, she met, Mr. Verma, her neighbour and greeted him. He took his stuff, bid bye to Simran and left the shop. What Simran found that by mistake, Mr. Verma had dropped a thousand rupees note there. She picked it up immediately and ran after her uncle to give the money. Mr. Verma thanked her and said, "You're an honest girl. Stay the same forever, god bless you child."
When Simran returned home, she narrated the incident to her mother and asked what 'honest' meant? Her mother said that being honest is being true, being honest is not to cheat anyone no matter what the situation is, being honest brings you praises because people love honesty and honest people.
Such incidents might have happened with most of us, where we might have exhibited honesty or seen others showing honest behaviour. A person does not have to be young or old, rich or poor to be honest. It does not take much to speak what is right, not practice what is wrong, favour the good, try and bring change in what is bad. All it needs is a clean heart and a good mind to bring honesty in our lives.
The first place where a person learns about being honest is his home, where family teaches what is honesty and how to be honest. For instance, a mother tells her child, that when he goes to school, he should never touch someone's school bag and take something out from someone's pencil box. This because, it is a bad practice to steal someone's belongings. But even a small child does so, mother asks the child to return back the things which he took because stealing is a bad practice and when he will come to know he will for sure break friendship with the child and never talk with him again. So the child, returns back the things to his friend, says sorry and promises never to repeat such a thing again. His friend forgives him without getting angry with him. This is the beauty of being honest.
Honesty strengthens relationships. Our dear ones love the truth we carry with us. Relations never demand us to be fake, and honesty brings out the real us.
An honest person is always trustworthy. People show immense faith in someone who is honest, because they believe that no matter what happens the honest person would not let anything wrong happen to them. Who else, other than the father of our nation, can fit in here? He is regarded as the MAHATMA for right reasons, he is known as the father of our nation for right reasons.
His whole life was a learning experience for him and for all of us too. The mistakes he committed in the initial stage of his life, of stealing and practicing wrong habits does not define who Mohandas Gandhi was. But, the lessons he learnt from accepting his mistakes, bringing in the policy of honesty in his life, define Gandhi. Masses followed him blindly, adopted his policies of non violence and truthfulness, this because he was successful to gain their trust. People believed him and shall continue to have faith in the ideology of Gandhi because people believed in his honesty.
Honesty brings courage. An honest man is never afraid of anyone. A person might take the support of a lie to earn short term gains but the same lies may cost him long term consequences. Because when the truth would come out, a liar would be left with no one trusting him, and showing faith in him. Honesty makes a person fearless, his head is held high and he enjoys a state of mental calm. Honesty strengthens a person's character and gives confidence to him.
An honest person, has complete faith in his hard work. He considers hard work as a tool which can mend all possible defects existing in his life and in the society. When I use honest and hard work together, the example of ARMSTRONG PAME comes to my mind, who is fondly known as the miracle man of Manipur. He single handily constructed a 100 km road in a remote village of Manipur without Government's help. All it needs is a heart full of honesty dedication and hard work to earn respect and love from people and work for the society's betterment.
For an honest person, mental peace won't come after seeing his bank balance or the wealth he could accumulate. Instead, for him, satisfaction is when he does not hurt someone with his actions, with the words he speaks or the work he does. An honest person believes in leading a life where he does not cheat anyone, where he could bring small changes in someone's behaviour and character. He might not lead a lavish life, like someone who chooses the path of lies, cheating, and dishonesty but certainly he would lead a happy life.
But, if I ask you to take a moment and think for yourself how honest you are? How happy is your life? And has the happiness come through all honest means? If the answers to the above questions come in positive, then you are on the right path, doing right with the life you have got. At the early stages, practicing an honest behaviour might be difficult. This because, when we look around we find people adopting unfair and unethical practices to succeed. But for how long will that success stay with dishonest people? One should remember that success and happiness achieved through dishonest practices might appear attractive initially but these come with no guarantee too.
Inner satisfaction which is gained through honesty is something that stays forever. In this twenty first century, competition is high, life has become a race, we are competing with everyone. But success achieved through fair means, healthy competition and honest practices is what gives morality and integrity to our character. When we look around, we find many people running after money, because they think money solely can make them powerful and help them live a comfortable life. For this, they indulge themselves in corruption and increase their wealth manifolds. But what they fail to realize is that a handsome bank balance won't make others respect them. They won't earn love and affection from others. They might get successful in life but shall fail drastically as humans.
Honesty is that humane quality which is appreciated by others. Everyone expects others to be honest and truthful. But one should understand that before expecting honesty from others, one should himself be having that quality. When we are honest in our relations, we develop a pleasant environment in our family and the bond with our near ones keep going stronger and stronger. Somebody has rightly said that a day spent with honesty can only bring a peaceful sleep at night. Not just in our families, but honesty holds importance in a student's life.
A student might not succeed at once, he might face impediments on his way, but when he does not give up, continue having confidence in his hard work , keep working honestly without cheating himself and his dear ones, success one day would surely find him!
Honesty for sure, is that one thing that looks good on everybody! It attracts appreciation affection and respect. An honest person sets an example for others. People want to follow the footsteps of honest people and be like them. Honesty radiates optimism. An honest person never gives up on humanity and kindness. He always looks at the brighter side of a person or a situation or the world. An honest person thinks that the world is full of people like him, who would not compromise with their morals and character and such people only would bring big changes in the society and mend whatever defects that exist. Thus, honesty is something that can surely make this world a better place to live.
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