Consider this...

By Mike Johnson

TELLING THE TRUTH

As this column is written, our president has been caught in a lie.

Oh, he hasn't admitted lying yet. Liars always believe they have us fooled. Yet I know the truth. The president told me himself in the 93% of communication that is not spoken in words.

The issue of course, involves Monica. Did he or didn't he?

In his denials, the president was focused on using precise words that seemed to say one thing, yet said nothing at all. He forgot it is impossible to hide the other large ways we unconsciously communicate. Specifically, voice tonality, body language and all the words we leave unsaid.

Had the president been telling the truth, he would not have gone to such great pains to stress his words as if angry. If he was innocent, he would have nothing to be angry about - he's accused of multiple misdeeds every day he's alive, just by virtue of being president. Why should this accusation be different than all the rest?

Had the president been innocent, his body language would not have been so forceful, his eye contact would have been less direct. In his denials, the president made a point of trying to burn his innocence into the eyes of the interviewer and camera. Why were these comments any more important than the hundreds of others he makes each day?

Finally, had the president been innocent, he'd be happy to take questions and provide any and all details of the questioned relationship. Immediately. With no preparation. He'd be telling us how he barely knew the woman, how he first met her, what her job at the White House was, how he thought her claims were incredibly confused. The president would be able to look Sam Donaldson in the eye with the cameras running and say, "What's on your mind, Sam?"

The president's words say he is telling the truth but his actions are saying he lied. This is a great lesson for the rest of us.

Talk is cheap. Words are always easier than actions. When a person's words are in conflict with his actions, rest assured he has sent the truth on vacation. And he expects us to enjoy the trip.

More times than not, the motivation for lies has to do with saving our reputation in the minds of others. This is impossible because we have a different "reputation" in the mind of every individual we meet. We can no more control others' thoughts about us than we can control their words about us.

Yet by his lie, the liar tells us he believes he CAN control what others think of him.

By his lie, the liar is revealing that he can't even control his OWN thoughts as they relate to what he believes others think of him. Rather than doing his own inner thought work, he asks millions of others to change their thoughts so HE doesn't have to.

Why would a person ask us to believe an illusion rather than the truth? Why would the leader of our country try to convince 260 million citizens and 6 billion neighbors to believe a lie?

Because it suits his own shallow needs.

What a liar is really saying when he utters a falsehood is "I don't care about the rest of you, you'll have to bend your reality to match what I want it to be." A liar wants us to feel guilty about questioning his honesty. This is a major red flag - a truth that cannot withstand question is no truth.

Unless we fearlessly look beyond a speaker's mere words, we'll continue to live in the illusions he tries to weave. The longer we embrace those falsehoods, the more devastated we'll be upon discovering the betrayal.

Experience tells me that many who read this column will continue to side with the president's denials. They want to believe his words, so they will. But what the president is painfully learning is a lesson we all should learn.

The truth does not conform to us, we must conform to the truth.

###

Mike Johnson is an energetic writer & entrepreneur. Learn more about Mike's offerings at www.MikeJohnson.biz