Sincerity is a virtue, which consists of being willing to say what we think, asking ourselves at every moment what effect what we are going to say will have on the other person. It means to be reasonably sure that he/she can receive our words as an aid to better understanding and an opportunity to grow.
This virtue must be practiced at the right time and in the right environment. It is necessary to be sincere with the other person, making observations and not criticizing, telling the other person what I perceive and not criticizing him/her because if we do so, we are passing judgment on the other person. It is not the same to tell someone who raises his voice to me that his tone is aggressive than to tell him that he is hysterical.
Facing life with sincerity will help us to be trustworthy people and to be seen by others as noble people. If we are honest and have the habit of telling the truth on a daily basis, we will be successful in any area of our lives. Being honest with oneself and with others guarantees more integrity, more tenacity and more personal courage, generating respect and trust in the eyes of others.
I can't stand people who are liars and insincere, this gives rise to emotional harm towards the person we are lying to. Feelings of deceit, bitterness and betrayal arise in this person. In addition, it is almost impossible to know how this insincerity will be repaid since there may be a need for revenge on the part of the person affected.
Many times I have been hurt by people who are not sincere with me, who have used me to achieve an end because I am useful to reach them, without giving me the opportunity to evaluate the convenience or not for me to help them according to my values, beliefs and needs.
I had a college classmate who although she was known to me was not very close and suddenly she approached me and began to treat me well, as she was pretty I was flattered, one day without telling me she showed up at my house with a lot of papers and books, she needed me to help her in her internship report. We sat at a table and I realized that she was not at all advanced in her assignment, we practically started from scratch and I questioned her to understand what knowledge she acquired in her work as an intern. My surprise was that she knew practically nothing.
As I could, I helped her to write a report, very creative and imaginary by the way, in which I captured a lot of my accounting and administrative knowledge. Technically, I was the one who wrote the report.
After this report was done, the girl did not talk to me much and started to hang out with other people that I did not like very much, she passed the course and did not even thank me for helping her. At no time did I reveal that the real author of this internship report was me.
This girl pretended to be my friend and was never sincere with me, time took care of this bad move and very quickly was recognized as one of the worst students in the classroom, many refused to help her for fear of losing valuable time.
In the workplace I fell into a similar situation, where in a hurry, my immediate supervisor promised me a promotion if I prepared a statistical table with projections for the Automotive Department, needless to say that I did not get that promotion and that my supervisor took all the merits for the work I did. I decided not to help her anymore and I told her with all the sincerity in the world that I really could not trust her anymore because I did not think her actions were fair. It is easy for one person to do a job and for another person to take it over.
This person did get a promotion for the work I did, however I did not help her anymore, I requested my change to another department and I had better luck with other supervisors who were honest with me. My former supervisor was fired for mistreating the staff and for demonstrating that she was not capable of achieving the objectives requested by her superiors in the bank.
I learned that sincerity goes hand in hand with honesty and if people practice this virtue in a good way without criticizing I can forgive any mistake they make in their life.