I went to the supermarket the other day to pick up a few things. When I was finished shopping, I decided to go through the self-checkout. As I picked up my bag of lemons, I saw a barcode on a sticker on each of the lemons, so I turned that toward the scanner. The price immediately popped up, 80 cents. Instantly, I realized that the bar code was pricing a single lemon, not the whole bag. For a moment I thought, “Hmm, they’ll never know.” And as I started to place the bag of lemons into the grocery bag, I heard it. And it wasn’t the first time I had heard this voice. It was in my head and it said, “But, I know!”

Ugh, yes, I did know that 80 cents was NOT the price of the bag of lemons, so I called for the employee managing the self checkout. I explained that I needed to use the barcode on the bag not on each individual lemon. She quickly deleted and added so I was squared away and I felt relieved. That internal moral compass couldn’t harass me any longer.

You’ve heard those words inside your head, right? “But, I know.” You know when what your doing is wrong or when you are cutting corners. “They” might never know, whoever “they” are, but YOU know! This happens at Shop Rite, but it also happens at work, at home, and it even happens when we are simply with ourselves. Did you cheat on your diet? No one will know—but, I know. Did you skip out on a full day of work? No one will know. But, I know. Today, simply think about those three words, “But I know.” From a character standpoint, that’s the only person that matters. “No one will know” is not true—YOU know, and that’s enough.

With Gratitude,

Beth