Stop faking it and live the life you were born to fulfill. Rediscover
your core values and return to your
authentic self. Regain the passion,
excitement, and confidence locked inside. Get real and leave the old phony
behind.Definitions
Authentic: Genuine; literally self-authored or endorsed.
Self: Your physical and mental being with all its human and
unique characteristics.
Authentic Self: The true you; aligned and congruent
self image,
stature,
values, beliefs,
goals, behavior, word, and
public image.
Becoming Authentic
To become your authentic self begin by knowing yourself.
Understand: human
nature, what you can change and what you cannot,
your own personality traits,
learned
behaviors, and your values, beliefs, sense of justice,
needs, goals, and motives. Integrate these to form your personal model for
human interaction. Analyze the events, choices, and people who have
contributed to your self-spiral throughout your
life. Understand what guides you throughout your
life. Discover your signature strengths, and the basis of your true stature.
Then apply those signature strengths toward your authentic
goals. Become an
authentic person by aligning your self image,
stature, and public image.
Have the courage to
acknowledge your limitations and embrace your vulnerability. Gain the confidence to be humble. Choose to be content. Work toward integration, alignment, and congruence of
what is with your values,
beliefs, and actions. Express
yourself authentically. Do what you say. Do who you are.
To understand the gap between who you are now and the authentic self you can
be, begin by writing a list of words that describe who you want to be; who you believe you
can be. To get started consider the list of trait nouns and
trait adjectives. If these complete lists are
overwhelming, use the shorter lists of
personality trait markers,
including both adjectives and nouns. Concentrate on words that
describe who you are, not what you do. Now write down a
separate list of words that
describe who you are now. How many words are the same on both lists? How many
are different? How closely do the lists compare? What changes do you
have to make?
Authentic people respond to their intrinsic motives.
They exercise autonomy, dismiss introjected regulations, and choose among the extrinsic
motives available to them. Their thoughts, beliefs, words, and actions originate
deep from
within and are true and secure enough to resist destructive external pressures. The result is a genuine, quiet, deep, vitalizing,
serene, and lasting fulfillment and confidence without anxiety, self-doubt,
or other sources of stress.
Authentic people choose authentic
alternatives. These include: wisdom,
well-founded beliefs, valid conclusions, purposeful
actions, candor, trust,
placing needs ahead of wants, knowing when they have
enough, balancing gratification
with hedonism, nimble actions, treating others humanely, and establishing
symmetrical relationships. We become
authentic when he path we choose through life is
congruent with who we are.
The alignment essential to an authentic person is illustrated here. Actions
aligned with your authentic self are authentic behaviors. Actions misaligned
with your authentic self are alien, false, fake, pretentious,
stressful,
insincere, fraudulent, strained, bogus, phony, and not authentic. This is typical of a
person who is misaligned, off balance, stressed, alienated, detached, and faking
it. When what you do is fully aligned with who you are, you are an authentic
person. Authentic people “do who they are” and enjoy gratification, serenity,
success, and significance. Authentic people act with more interest, excitement, and confidence and often
demonstrate better performance, persistence, creativity, vitality,
self-esteem, and general well-being.
Authenticity reduces fear, anxiety,
guilt, and shame.

Your authentic self is the unique combination of all your qualities including
your skills, abilities, interests, talents, limits, insights, experiences, memories,
beliefs, purpose, and
wisdom. It is the expression of your core values through all your quirks and
your strengths. Our authentic nature may best be
revealed by how we enjoy playing—by what it is we most enjoy doing simply for our own
pleasure—at any age.
Increase the congruence between what you do, and your
goals, beliefs, and
values. Pay attention to how you spend your time. Do the activities you
spend your time on advance your most important goals? Do
your goals reflect your values? Do your values
reflect your authentic self? Reappraise your values, beliefs, goals, and actions
to improve the congruence.
As people become more authentic they often become more: rational,
realistic, intuitive, creative, independent,
flexible, able to manage change, willing to
accept blame and correct their mistakes, generous,
respectful of others, fair, and cooperative. This
congruence earns the
trust of others.
Don Miguel Ruiz shares centuries of Toltec wisdom in his book The Four Agreements.
To apply this wisdom, choose to create these profound agreements with yourself:
- Be impeccable with your word. Carefully examine what you tell yourself,
what you tell others, and when you decide to speak. Use your word
consistently to express and strengthen your values.
Don't employ or overlook factual errors, fallacies or,
distortions during communications.
Express yourself authentically. Earn
trust. Do what you say.
- Don't take anything personally. It's not all about you. Reject the
fallacy of personalization.
Rely confidently on your own well-founded
self-concept; it is the only evaluation of your
worth that matters. Challenge and balance your first-person viewpoint.
- Don't make assumptions. Suspend
judgment. Readily acknowledge what you don't know and have the
courage to ask questions. Carefully examine the
evidence. Don't
attribute intent to others. Retain a healthy skepticism as you
avoid cynicism. Develop, refine, and constantly apply your own well-founded
theory of knowledge.
- Always do your best. Do all you can while you recognize you can't do it
all. All you can do is all you can do. When you have truly done your best,
there is no reason for shame. It's ok to goof off if
you do your best when it matters the most. Apply your time and effort toward
your well-chosen and enduring goals.
When you understand and accept these agreements you can begin the hard work of transformation;
the journey toward your authentic self. Question your own long-held answers. Carefully examine each of your
values,
beliefs,
goals, judgments, and rules and decide if they are consistent with the four agreements. Reject
those that are not consistent and adopt new values,
goals, beliefs, and rules that support all four agreements. Eliminate your
introjected
regulations. Integrate these four agreements into your
theory of knowledge. Constantly reprogram yourself until you can consistently keep
the four agreements .
These agreements are essential elements of authentic expression
and earning trust.
Quotations:
- “Know thyself.” ~
Socrates
(470–399 BC)
- “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.” ~
Confucius
(551 – 479 BC)
- “One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” ~
Leonardo Da Vinci
(1452 – 1519)
- “Life is not a dress rehearsal.” ~
- “It's not what they think; it's what you know.” ~ Nathaniel Branden
- “Popularity is not self-respect.” ~ Nathaniel Branden
- “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.”
~ Voltaire, in Essays on Tolerance
- “Stay
Hungry. Stay Foolish.”
-
“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about
creating yourself.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
-
“This above all: to thine own self be true” ~
Polonius' advice to his son Laertes in William Shakespeare's “Hamlet”
-
“Wherever you go, there you are.” ~
-
“The self that emerges through play is the core authentic self.”
~ Stuart Brown.
-
“These two simple processes—triggering intrigue and sustaining
interest—are at the heart of a fulfilling life.” ~ Todd Kashdan
-
“Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got.” ~ Janis
Joplin
References
Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment , by Martin Seligman
Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation , by
Edward L. Deci, Richard Flaste
I Am a Strange Loop ,
by Douglas Hofstadter
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000).
Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic
motivation, social development, and well-being . American
Psychologist, 55, 68-78.
Authentic Happiness Website , by Martin Seligman, director of the University
of Pennsylvania positive psychology center.
Self Matters ,
by Phillip C. McGraw
Six Pillars of Self-Esteem ,
by Nathaniel Branden
The Four Agreements,
by Don Miguel Ruiz
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything ,
by Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica
The power of vulnerability, Brene Brown, June 2010 TED Talk
Peaceful Warrior
— Dan Millman learns to enjoy the journey in this docudrama.
Everybody Needs a Rock,
by Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnall
Knowing Yourself , an Amazon.com Listmania List
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