5 Helpful Tips on How to Stop Lying
Lying is not a good thing. To be a perpetual liar is despicable habit that will not end well. It will take a person’s peace, ruin many good relationships, getting him/her into many trouble and many eventually end up on the wrong side of the law. If there’s any habit to break, it is the habit of lying.
For anyone who wants to quit habitual lying, the problem may be that he/she doesn’t even know how to go about it. Here are some tips that will be of help:
Own the truth
The first step to leaving the habit of lying behind is to admit to yourself that you lie a lot and lying is a habit that you perform easily. When you tell yourself the truth that you are a liar, only then can you begin the journey of killing the habit.
Count the cost
Take time out to examine all the negative consequences that lying has had on your relationships and other areas of your life. You should also examine all the negative ways it makes you feel to live a life of lies.
When you are able to see the great damage it has done, you will see the benefits of changing. If you don’t understand the disadvantages of a thing, you may never see the need to correct it
Be accountable to someone
Get yourself somebody whom you will report your activities to, who will have the opportunity to query you whether you have lied since your last meeting and how many times you have lied. Such a person should also have access to people around you so that he/she can verify your claims and you should have at least one person who would be given the authority to call you out whenever you are telling lies
This will keep you on your toes as you will want to have a good report.
Correct yourself immediately
One way to fight the habit of lying is make a habit of correcting a lie that you have told as soon as you realize it. You may not have to tell the other parties that it was a lie; you may just tell them that the previous information was incorrect. However, if you really want to check yourself, tell people that your first response was a lie when trying to correct the lie.
You will not want to do this often and you will find yourself telling the truth more often.
Return to apologize to those you have hurt
One of the ways to stop a bad habit is to give yourself an opportunity to experience how it has affect others and try to make amend for it. Find those people that you have hurt with your lies and make apologies to them not necessarily to restore those relationships but as an act of accountability. Whatever we are not accountable for, we may never be able to change.
Be determined
You need to be determined to break any habit and a habit of lying is not an exception. You may even need extra determination for such a habit that seems to make your problems to temporarily disappear.
You must know that it will hardly be quick fix; you will need to renew your resolve regularly and pick yourself up after every setback. Don’t give up and you will overcome.