This past week I have been thinking a lot about Lance Armstrong.  His story was so inspirational to me.  Here was a man who survived cancer and who seemingly defied the odds to win race after race after race.

Seemingly . . .

We all lie.  We all cheat, and we all break rules. But WOW!

As someone who spent 14 years in “The Closet,” I know that I lied constantly and got really good at it.

I thought I was “protecting” my reputation, “protecting” my family and “protecting” my soul’s salvation.  The lie became so ordinary that it almost seemed to become truth over time.

Say it enough times and you start to believe it.

It reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when George tells Jerry that a “lie is not a lie if you believe it to be true.”

Perhaps if you want it to be true is more like it.

I wanted to be someone I was not.  Lance Armstrong wanted that too, and it required a series of insidious fabrications, distortions and equivocations . . . in short . . . lies.

I am not making apologies for my lies or for Armstrong’s.

That first little lie always seems so innocuous.  It is the one we tell ourselves before we ever share it with the world.  We box ourselves in because we fail to see all the other options that produce none of the horrendous side-effects of lying: failed relationships, lost opportunities, the guilt and the shame.

“I saw no other option,” is the classic reflection of those caught in their own deceitful web.

That belief is, in the end, the greatest mistruth of all.

There are always less insidious and less harmful possibilities that encompass the truth as we see it here and now.  But this can only become our default (and healthy) option when we face our fears head on, when we share our concerns with others candidly and openly, and when we admit we do not always know what to do.

Armstrong’s web of lies reminds us that only we can choose an honest route for our lives when mindful of the false promises of our lies.

It is never too late.  Remember, we are all sinners . . . and redemption is sublime.

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If you have any questions about coaching please feel free to contact me at scott@kineticcoaching.co, and remember I always offer a complimentary 30-45 minute session to prospective clients to determine if we want to work together.