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English Phrase: Take you at your word
Trust is in short supply these days.
People will hardly believe what you do, let alone take you at your word.
When someone takes you at your word, they believe what you say without having to prove it.
We lie so quickly and effortlessly these days that we don’t even know we’re doing it.
It’s gotten to the point that when you hear someone begin a sentence with the phrase, to be honest, you’re ninety percent sure that what comes next is anything but the truth and perhaps a tall story.
Now that I think about it, we don’t even use the word lie much anymore.
We say untruth, alternative facts, fib, white lie, or even bend the truth.
Let me ask you a question.
Think, now, who would you take at their word?
I mean, who would you 100% trust to tell you the truth about anything?
If you’re lucky, you have five people on that list – ten if you are very fortunate.
Now think about all the people who don’t fall into that category.
“Believe nothing you hear and only one half that you see.”
Edgar Allen Poe
We’re all on a quest for the truth.
Really, I think we are.
We never truly achieve self-understanding until we know the truth about ourselves.
That means we have to be true to ourselves, which in turn means we have to be true to others.
People need to be able to take you at your word.
If they can’t believe in your honesty, how can you believe in theirs?
If you want to find the truth, ensure people can take you at your word by first being truthful.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 6th-grade education (age 11).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 84.
The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.