Integrity makes you hard to blackmail. There’s nothing hidden for anyone to grab.

Anything hidden is a handle somebody could hold, and the ones that matter are rarely dramatic. They are the small lies you would rather not have surface, the story you told two people two different ways. Each creates a low background cost: something to track, something to protect. Living without them is partly ethics and partly just wanting fewer things to manage.

Pick the one thing you would least like to come out and ask whether you can clear it now rather than later. Sometimes that is a short honest conversation. Going forward, try saying only what you would be fine having repeated.