A man, so to speak, who is not able to bow to his own conscience every morning is hardly in a condition to respectfully salute the world at any other time of the day.

Meeting everyone else well depends on whether you can face yourself first. Someone carrying an unsettled account with their own conscience tends to be defensive, or over-agreeable, or quick to take offence, because every exchange happens on top of something unresolved. A morning test works well precisely because it is private. Nobody else is there to accept the excuse.

If there is something you cannot look at squarely, deal with the smallest piece of it this week: the apology, the admission, the thing you stopped doing. Other people become easier almost immediately. A surprising amount of social friction has a private cause.