Becoming Authentic

In Latest News & Blog by Bev

One of my goals is to be authentic and help others who want to do the same. But what do I mean by being authentic?

 

Definitions tend to focus on authentic as being genuine and not “fake”.

 

Being authentic then is being honest and real about who we are and showing that to the world in how we behave. Being authentic has a feel-good ring to it and most of us like the idea of being honest and genuine.

 

So if authentic sounds good then why don’t we just all get on with being authentic? Because it’s one of those feel good, easy to understand, nice to have things but as I have learned and continue to learn, it takes some work to turn it into reality. Here are some things I have learned so far along the way.

 

  1. Learning about Ourselves

In order to be ourselves we have to know about ourselves. Taking time to find out more about ourselves is vital. Why? Because when we know what’s most important in our life, when we know how we want to live our life, what we intend to give and get  from our life and what we stand for and believe in then we have a guide, a framework for our behaviour to follow.

 

  1. Learning how to Accept Ourselves as Human

Human beings are fallible, flawed, and beautifully imperfect. Accepting ourselves as human means that we can give up on perfectionism.

We do not have to wait to be thinner, richer, prettier, more popular, more successful, before we can show the world who we are. We are good enough now!

 

  1. Giving Up on Comparisons

It is not possible to measure the worth of a human being but we so easily fall into the trap of believing that what someone owns or does makes them worth more as a human being. People don’t become worth more because they have more. We are worth as much as anyone else, today, right now.

 

  1. Acting Ourselves

We soak up media messages every day that tell us how to look, how to behave, what constitutes success and how to measure it. Being truly ourselves may mean dressing, acting, thinking, behaving differently to previously. When we start to act differently some people may judge us or even reject us. It is also true that we often respect and admire people who have the confidence to be themselves and not be overly worried about what others think. Either way, acting authentically takes courage, but there are great benefits. These include making new connections with people who value us just as we are and being more comfortable with ourselves. Ultimately being able to focus on what is important to us and not what we think should be important to us, for me is priceless.