We need to be trustworthy. 

Not be a wolf’s dinner. 

If we keep giving a shaded view of something that happened, people will learn to discount, and eventually ignore, what we say. Especially if we cast ourselves in the starring role.

Remember the hapless boy who cried wolf when there wasn’t one in sight? In time, the villagers learned not to believe him. He was left to fend for himself (and we know how well that turned out) when a wolf actually turned up. The villagers came to ignore his cries of “WOLF!” because experience told them that the boy saw telling the truth as unimportant.

He wasn’t trustworthy.

He wasn’t believable.

In the same way, if we keep skewing our reporting while others know the reality, it’s only a matter of time until people listen to us with a healthy dose of skepticism. How can they trust us when we seem incapable of reporting an event honestly and relating it properly?

Others may deem us to be a nice person, but discountable at the same time. Is this how we want others to perceive us?