Today I want to talk about something I’ve been thinking and reflecting on a lot lately. I, unfortunately, can’t remember the exact situation that got me thinking about it but I want to talk about authenticity. Not in any specific capacity, like in regards to social media, or online personas, though I do think those things are important and I will touch on that, but more so just being your authentic self and focusing on what makes you feel the most you.
Being authentic boils down to knowing who you are, knowing what makes you unique, and not ditching those things just because they might make you different.
I’ve been challenging myself to stay mindful about being authentic on all fronts. For me authenticity means:
- being up front with myself and with others about what I like and don’t like.
- asking myself “is that something I really want to do?”
- not modifying myself to be loved or accepted by others.
- not editing my life in a way to make myself seem perfect.
- saying no whenever I god damn feel like it. (+5 points for feeling this sassy!)
I have been listening to all kinds of podcasts and e-books about well being and personal development lately, and one thing that they all have in common is that they all say you need to embrace your true self in order to be truly happy. The number of people I’ve heard talk about how much time they wasted trying to be something they weren’t was so insane, and it kind of shocked me into obsessing about being authentic and whether or not I was wasting my time trying to be someone I’m not.
When it comes to social media or just my online persona, I find that I constantly struggle with this internal conflict or belief that people deserve to know what I’m doing all the time, even when I really don’t feel like sharing something. That can easily be taken in a very conceited way, but I assure you that’s not what I mean. I don’t mean that people want to know what I’m up to, just that I feel like I owe everyone something…for some reason. Maybe that’s just my personality type? Maybe I should look up what my personality type is? (< true revelation just happened right there, actually though, I wrote it down in my BUJO! It’s a thing now!)
So I’ve got a little bit of a plan aside from the list of things above, that is hopefully going to help me be more authentic, help me give less of a fox (see what I did there!? Am I allowed to swear here?), and hopefully help me kick these expectations of perfection when it comes to how I appear to other people.
A while back when that Sarahahahaha.com site was a thing, someone left this comment on my page and it kind of just made me laugh because I really don’t feel that way at all. It may look perfect online because I don’t post the bad parts but my life is most definitely not perfect. Maybe this is what sparked this post topic…. I don’t know. Anyways, I hope that this post wasn’t too rambly or weird. But then again, I’m trying not to care too much about that!
Let me know if you struggle with these kinds of things or feel like you could be a little more authentic too, so I know I’m not alone!
Thanks for reading,
Insightful post. I think we all struggle with being authentic. Putting on my work face is different then my home personality. Though not by much. Our online personas are rarely truely authentic though some people share to much and then they really embrace there authentic selves. I like positivity so tend to steer away from those who post rants on social media. Yoga meditation and mindfulness help to keep me centered and balanced which is who I want my authentic self to be.