Living your authentic self can be a great challenge. You may have heard for “just be yourself” or “just be confident”. I like to say to be your authentic self because to me it means not listening to anyone else, not seeking approval from others, not lashing out for attention. You listen to your inner calling and pursue without worrying about how others will respond.
You may be scared to be your honest and authentic self because of the fear of being disliked. You may be afraid of losing friends or embarrassing yourself in front of others. So, you change the way you act to appear perfect on the outside to please others.
But ironically, you are isolating the same people you want to connect with. And you will never fully connect unless you reveal the whole you, the good and the bad.
When you feel the time is right and you found someone you feel safe to talk to, to truly share who you really are, only then can you make an honest and deep connection.
Sure, it will offend some people, but it will attract the right people to you and repel the people who you shouldn’t waste your time with. If those people disagree, then that means they are simply not resonating with you, and you should probably move on.
Changing who you are can be seen as dishonest and masks who you really are. I have had a great deal of issues revealing who I really was deep down inside to others for many reasons. But when I finally did reveal myself, ironically it brought me even closer to the people I decided to fully reveal myself to.
A perfect example would be in the movie “40 Year Old Virgin”, Andy never told his love interest Beth that he was a virgin and the secrecy and suspicious behavior drove Beth to believe he was a psycho. After finally revealing to Beth that he was a virgin, they finally connected and ended up getting married. Behind all that secrecy, Beth stated that it wasn’t even important.