For many, they might not have the latest things in vogue or they might not have the most interesting lifestyles, but the one commodity that they can flaunt in confidence is their integrity. For anyone to claim to have good integrity then they must’ve decided to both be honest and equally trustworthy.
Now these two qualities are so alike that they are sometimes even interchangeable in some situations. But alas, there can come situations where both qualities clash and it then depends on your view of the situation to reach a decision that you believe is the right one.
One of such situations is seen on one of the topics for this week asking what you would do in a situation where a loved one tells you a secret that could hurt another person whom you also care about and they require you not to inform the person. Would you keep the secret or not?
Making a decision is easily a dilemma especially for someone who claims they have integrity. There are certain factors that make this situation quite unique and I’ll discuss some of the them.
The first is that the person who confided in you is a loved one meaning there’s some sort of emotional attachment to the person, probably the person is family. We all know that its not always easy making rational decisions when there’s an emotional investment, thus making a decision hard.
The second issue here is that before confiding in you, the person must’ve believed you to be trustworthy enough not to divulge the secret. Making a decision that goes against that trust could be construed as betrayal and cause friction between your relationship with that person.
Finally, and this is perhaps the trickiest part of the whole scenario. This is a secret that could damage someone else whom you care about, and not telling means you’re comfortable with hurting them. This is where honesty goes against trust, because whatever decision you make will still put your integrity on the line.
MOMENT OF TRUTH
Now that we have all the facts on ground and we know the consequence of choosing to tell and keeping quiet, lets talk about what I would do if I were ever in such a situation.
One thing I’ve noticed about the truth is that there’s a feeling of freedom that accompanies it, the same cannot be said for lies. Before making my decision, I would have to base it on whether the information I’m privy to is life threatening or not.
Then I have to decide what is right or wrong regardless of who gets hurt in the end. If it’s beneficial to tell the secret, I’ll definitely tell it but if it isn’t then my mouth would be zipped. The key is to make a decision that your conscience knows is the best for that situation regardless of whether you’re sacrificing a little bit of honesty or trust issue.
In such situations, you can’t have both so just find a balance.