September 27, 2025 • 6 mins
Self-Honesty: The Hardest Truth You'll Ever Tell | With Nishith Goyal Why is being honest with yourself so incredibly difficult? In this powerful episode, Nishith Goyal explores the transformative journey of self-honesty and why it's the most challenging yet necessary practice for personal growth. 🎯 What You'll Discover:
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/be-better-bit-by-bit--4216679/support.
Thanks for listening!
If this episode helped you, I'd love to stay connected.
About me: I'm a CA ranker (AIR 48), ultra-marathon runner, and author with 20 years of work experience. I believe in getting better bit by bit—through daily journaling, honest reflection, and small actions.
Here's how we can work together:
📱 Download UPLY - Our app for daily growth and mindfulness
📚 Read my books & journals - Available on Amazon (search my name - Nishith Goyal)
🌐 Visit bebetterbitbybit.com - Free resources, blog posts, and more
🎯 Join my workshops - I teach journaling, mental wellness, and the GATE concept
One bit at a time, we all get better.
See you in the next episode!
- Why denial is our default mode and how it sabotages our growth
- The morning journaling practice that changed everything (4 powerful journals revealed)
- How self-honesty led to achieving All India Rank 48 in Chartered Accountancy
- Lessons from Abraham Lincoln's secret letters to himself
- The Boeing whistleblower story and the cost of speaking truth
- 5 practical steps to start practicing radical self-honesty today
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/be-better-bit-by-bit--4216679/support.
Thanks for listening!
If this episode helped you, I'd love to stay connected.
About me: I'm a CA ranker (AIR 48), ultra-marathon runner, and author with 20 years of work experience. I believe in getting better bit by bit—through daily journaling, honest reflection, and small actions.
Here's how we can work together:
📱 Download UPLY - Our app for daily growth and mindfulness
📚 Read my books & journals - Available on Amazon (search my name - Nishith Goyal)
🌐 Visit bebetterbitbybit.com - Free resources, blog posts, and more
🎯 Join my workshops - I teach journaling, mental wellness, and the GATE concept
One bit at a time, we all get better.
See you in the next episode!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
By being honest with yourself is so damn hard but necessary.
My Gratitude Journal is my daily accomplice, and this prompt
appears daily. What do I like about myself? And one
of the trades or behaviors that I often write is honesty.
For a long time, I associated honesty with telling the
(00:21):
truth to others, But I was wrong. As I continued
answering the same prompt every day in my Gratitude Journal,
the reference frames of my brain changed completely. Now honesty
means much more than that. The real challenge lies in
telling the truth to ourselves, and honestly, it's the hardest
(00:43):
thing I do every single day. Every morning I wake
up at five a m. I sit with my journals,
not just one, multiple A Gratitude Journal, a Morning Pages journal,
three pages of freewriting, and I am Affirmation's journal, reflection diary.
(01:04):
When I started this practice, I thought I was just
building discipline, But I was doing something more powerful. I
was learning how to be honest with myself. Some days
the words just flow. Other days I stare at the
blank page, or worse, I find myself writing things I
(01:25):
want to believe about myself, not what is really true.
That's when the journal becomes a mirror, and the mirror
never lies. Why is it so hard to be honest
with ourselves? Because denial is easy. We deny all the time.
(01:47):
We deny the importance of time, We deny the urgency
of now, We deny our need for rest, we deny
our unhealthy habits, we deny that we're scared, and slowly
we begin to deny who we really are. My learning.
The more I write, the less I deny, the more
I reflect, the more I see, and the more I admit,
(02:08):
the lighter I feel. Abraham Lincoln once said, when I
do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I
feel bad. That's my religion. Lincoln wrote letters to himself
that he never sent. He used writing as a way
to clear his mind and confront his inner struggles, and
he didn't need social media. He had a pen and
(02:30):
paper and that was enough to face his truth. Not
long ago, a whistleblower from Boeing, a quality engineer named
Sam Salafpor, came forward. He raised concerns about the safety
of Boeing seven eight seven and seven seven seven jets.
The internal conflict he faced must have been immense. Speaking
(02:51):
up cost him his peace but he did it because
being honest mattered more. It shook the aviation industry, but
it all so reminded the world of this. Real honesty
comes at a cost, but it can save lives. My
own story Chartered accountancy and honesty. When I was preparing
(03:19):
for my Charted accountancy exams, I failed twice in my
final attempt. The easy thing was to blame the system,
or bad luck or the examiner. But I chose the
harder path to look at my own mistakes, to be
honest about my preparation, to admit where I didn't give
my one hundred percent that third attempt, I didn't just pass.
(03:42):
I scored an All India rank AR forty eight. That's
what honesty does. It's not loud, it's not flashy. It's
just you versus you, and when you win that battle,
the results speak. Today it's easy to wear a mask,
online filters, highlight reels, constant noise. But silence is still
(04:03):
powerful and honesty is still rare. The world rewards people
who are two to themselves, not because they are perfect,
but because they are real. What honesty brings one fearlessness.
When you accept your truth, no one can use it
against you. Two Simplicity, You don't need to remember lies.
(04:28):
Three Clarity, your decisions become sharper. Four discipline. When you
say something and mean it, you act accordingly. Five Peace.
Nothing brings peace like being aligned inside and outside. So
how can you practice self? Honesty? A right? Just a
(04:53):
few lines? Every day? Journaling is powerful? B Notice where
do your work? Words and actions not match? C? Reflect?
Ask yourself? Am I avoiding something? D Except it's okay
not to have it all figured out? E? Act bit
by bit, change follows honesty, final thoughts. You don't have
(05:19):
to become brutally honest overnight. You just have to start
noticing the truth in your actions, in your thoughts, in
your silence. I still struggle some days my journal stays blank,
but the habit of returning to the page never leaves
me because each time I write, I see myself and
(05:41):
that's enough. Honesty doesn't make life easier, it makes it clearer.
So if you're asking why can't I be honest with myself?
Know that the question itself is the start, and the
answer lies in your pen, in your breath, your bid
by bit journey, keep going. Let's grow bit by bit
(06:04):
and my bid by bid journey has now moved to
the next step. You can buy my new book The
Gateway from Amazon and explore the four step approach that
can change your life permanently. Keep listening, keep improving, keep learning.
By being honest with yourself is so damn hard but necessary.
My Gratitude Journal is my daily accomplice, and this prompt
appears daily. What do I like about myself? And one
of the trades or behaviors that I often write is honesty.
For a long time, I associated honesty with telling the
(00:21):
truth to others, But I was wrong. As I continued
answering the same prompt every day in my Gratitude Journal,
the reference frames of my brain changed completely. Now honesty
means much more than that. The real challenge lies in
telling the truth to ourselves, and honestly, it's the hardest
(00:43):
thing I do every single day. Every morning I wake
up at five a m. I sit with my journals,
not just one, multiple A Gratitude Journal, a Morning Pages journal,
three pages of freewriting, and I am Affirmation's journal, reflection diary.
(01:04):
When I started this practice, I thought I was just
building discipline, But I was doing something more powerful. I
was learning how to be honest with myself. Some days
the words just flow. Other days I stare at the
blank page, or worse, I find myself writing things I
(01:25):
want to believe about myself, not what is really true.
That's when the journal becomes a mirror, and the mirror
never lies. Why is it so hard to be honest
with ourselves? Because denial is easy. We deny all the time.
(01:47):
We deny the importance of time, We deny the urgency
of now, We deny our need for rest, we deny
our unhealthy habits, we deny that we're scared, and slowly
we begin to deny who we really are. My learning.
The more I write, the less I deny, the more
I reflect, the more I see, and the more I admit,
(02:08):
the lighter I feel. Abraham Lincoln once said, when I
do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I
feel bad. That's my religion. Lincoln wrote letters to himself
that he never sent. He used writing as a way
to clear his mind and confront his inner struggles, and
he didn't need social media. He had a pen and
(02:30):
paper and that was enough to face his truth. Not
long ago, a whistleblower from Boeing, a quality engineer named
Sam Salafpor, came forward. He raised concerns about the safety
of Boeing seven eight seven and seven seven seven jets.
The internal conflict he faced must have been immense. Speaking
(02:51):
up cost him his peace but he did it because
being honest mattered more. It shook the aviation industry, but
it all so reminded the world of this. Real honesty
comes at a cost, but it can save lives. My
own story Chartered accountancy and honesty. When I was preparing
(03:19):
for my Charted accountancy exams, I failed twice in my
final attempt. The easy thing was to blame the system,
or bad luck or the examiner. But I chose the
harder path to look at my own mistakes, to be
honest about my preparation, to admit where I didn't give
my one hundred percent that third attempt, I didn't just pass.
(03:42):
I scored an All India rank AR forty eight. That's
what honesty does. It's not loud, it's not flashy. It's
just you versus you, and when you win that battle,
the results speak. Today it's easy to wear a mask,
online filters, highlight reels, constant noise. But silence is still
(04:03):
powerful and honesty is still rare. The world rewards people
who are two to themselves, not because they are perfect,
but because they are real. What honesty brings one fearlessness.
When you accept your truth, no one can use it
against you. Two Simplicity, You don't need to remember lies.
(04:28):
Three Clarity, your decisions become sharper. Four discipline. When you
say something and mean it, you act accordingly. Five Peace.
Nothing brings peace like being aligned inside and outside. So
how can you practice self? Honesty? A right? Just a
(04:53):
few lines? Every day? Journaling is powerful? B Notice where
do your work? Words and actions not match? C? Reflect?
Ask yourself? Am I avoiding something? D Except it's okay
not to have it all figured out? E? Act bit
by bit, change follows honesty, final thoughts. You don't have
(05:19):
to become brutally honest overnight. You just have to start
noticing the truth in your actions, in your thoughts, in
your silence. I still struggle some days my journal stays blank,
but the habit of returning to the page never leaves
me because each time I write, I see myself and
(05:41):
that's enough. Honesty doesn't make life easier, it makes it clearer.
So if you're asking why can't I be honest with myself?
Know that the question itself is the start, and the
answer lies in your pen, in your breath, your bid
by bit journey, keep going. Let's grow bit by bit
(06:04):
and my bid by bid journey has now moved to
the next step. You can buy my new book The
Gateway from Amazon and explore the four step approach that
can change your life permanently. Keep listening, keep improving, keep learning.
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