Authenticity isn’t cheap:
It’ll cost you friendships. It’ll cost you marriages. It’ll cost you extra time to explain even the most innocuous comment. It’ll cost you in very real world terms, financially. Starving artists are nothing, if not authentic.

The first duty is to be authentic to yourself. This may reveal that you’re lying to yourself to preserve order for the sake of not hurting anyone’s feelings. But this is the kind of persistent erosion that results in eventual depression. The short term sting of honesty in uncomfortable moments provides a long term path to the most happiness. Honesty is truly a shortcut to equanimity, and it’s a proven path of least resistance.

There is so much less to think about when you’re honest. A life freed from distraction is a more examined life. Presence will be far easier when pretense is a thing of the past.