“Live out what you understand” seems to be a solid outline of what living honestly requires.
Being articulate and speaking your mind is one thing. That alone is a high standard — you must first think, then know your own thoughts enough to express them in ways understandable to other minds.
But what if what you have understood is crooked, imperfect, undesirable?
Through living out your understanding, you get to see those thoughts and beliefs for what they are, not what you want them to be, not how they seem to work out in your head.
And from this point of renewed understanding — if you are honest with what you are and the things you do, and remain open to adjustments required for updates to your private store of know-how and wisdom — you are once again tasked to live out what you have newly learned.
Thus the cycle self-perpetuates.
This does not mean ideals are worthless, or that it is best to cease to think impossibly in the abstract realms. It does mean, however, that such thoughts are vain if they do not connect to the things you do and say — if there is no way to live out what it is to be a good man or woman, what good is there in waxing eloquent over the qualities and possibilities of such a human being?
However, when the lines of reasoning within your mind intersect with the nerves and muscles of your body to demonstrate what you believe, then truth becomes real, and the word has power to save.
Let your life and work express what you have understood.