Right action is essential. Without honesty of feelings, right action needs to follow an external code. With honesty of feelings and motives, right action arises spontaneously from the heart.
Being honest about one's own faults is just a step. A thief honestly saying he is a thief and continuing thieving will win no favour with the judge.
Right action, following an external code or one's own heart as the case may be, is the constituent of character.
