Honesty really is the best policy in spite of the fact that many people use dishonesty to get ahead in life. While it may give you a temporary boost, in the long run, it can only hurt you. For one thing, when you are truthful, you never have to worry about being caught in a lie. Aside from that, however, the most important thing is that in being truthful, you feel better about yourself.

There are many people who are not truthful for one reason or another. They may have something that they are ashamed of that they want to hide. Others may feel entitled to things that they would not get without lying. Many people lie to stay out of trouble. No matter what the reason people have for telling lies, being untruthful can only lead to problems. Lies may get you out of trouble in the beginning, but will get you into deeper trouble if you are caught.

One of the places that people lie often, thinking they will not be caught is on job applications. Many, if not most jobs require a high school diploma or equivalent. However, there are still people that do not have either and say they do. While they may get the job in the first place, it’s very possible that their employer may find out at any given time that they lied on their application, and they can be fired for that. It’s also possible that the employer will never find out, but their lack of education may still shine through in other ways. Eventually, that will lead to difficulties with their job.

Another time that people often lie is to cover up for mistakes they have made. It may be a small mistake, such as not flossing that morning. It may be more serious mistakes such as domestic violence and abuse, or other criminal behavior. These are the lies that hurt other people.

There are occasions where parents encourage their children to lie as well. They may keep pressing the children to “tell the truth” when they are looking for dirt on the other parent, until the child is virtually forced to make something up to satisfy that need to tell the truth. However, they have just encouraged the child to lie to meet their own ends. This can often happen between divorced parents who are looking for an excuse to shut the other parent out of the children’s life.

Any of these do not help anyone, and can actually hurt people. The first lies hurt you in your life, and may cause you to ultimately be unemployable. The second kind of lies hurt others, who do not deserve to be hurt. The third kind of lies hurt children and their relationship with their parents. None of them are healthy for anyone. If people are truthful to begin with, there is no need to worry about any of these problems.