In this series, The Real You, we will be answering the question “What is Authenticity?” by breaking it up into 4 posts.
What is Authenticity? It is…
- Knowing who you are
- Matching Your Priorities to Your Principles
- Not trying to be someone else (Copycats & Comparisons)
- Perhaps not everything you thought it was (7 Misconceptions about Authenticity)
Today’s post may be the most crucial because how can you be the real you if you don’t even know who you are?
Why even care about “the real you” and authenticity?
Because I firmly believe that an understanding of self is the birthplace of an authentic, lasting, positive growth. Authenticity is the KEY to personal growth. It is the secret ingredient for a much better life. It is why I’ve made my tagline “know yourself, grow yourself.”
Have you ever tried to follow someone’s advice for reaching a certain goal (i.e. weight loss, better grades in school, improving your time management, etc.) and it just didn’t work for you? Well why did it work for the other person but not you? We’ll get into more specifics on the blog, but basically it’s because everyone is different. There are some things that will always be helpful and true, but some methods won’t work for everyone because we’re all too unique to fit into neat and tidy little how-to boxes.
What motivates me may not motivate you. What I fear may not scare you one bit. What time of day I’m most alert and productive may not be your best time of day. What works for me may not work for you. But the more you learn about yourself, the more you can filter the tips and advice you receive and modify it to work for YOU and YOUR unique needs. You’ll begin to learn what works for you and what doesn’t (and understand WHY!).
When someone asks you the question “who are you?“, how do you respond?
Perhaps you say your name and list some deeply rooted parts of yourself (such as your personality type). Perhaps you describe yourself by your current roles and relationships (such as engineer or mother). Or perhaps you mention parts of you that have changed and transformed throughout your life but currently have great significance to you (such as your specific hopes, dreams, and goals).
These all have a play in what makes you uniquely you. There are a few key parts of your personality that, despite your experience and maturation, will (at its very core) stay the same. There are also parts of you that grow, bend, and even change completely as you face new life experiences and develop as a person, but they aren’t any less a part of you in the current step of your journey that you are in.
Why is knowing who you are, even small details, so important?
Because the more you know yourself, the more you can grow yourself.
There is such power in understanding who you are. Likewise, there is such destruction in a misunderstanding of who you are. How you perceive yourself affects how you think, how you feel, how you act…it affects EVERYTHING! I know personally how much it can hurt when you’re in a place of questioning who you are or why you are the way you are or how you fit in this world. It’s a deep soul-piercing kind of hurt.
Likewise, I know the feeling that comes when you grasp something new about yourself — and that is a feeling of such relief and peace and joy! It’s one of the best feelings in the world! That moment when it clicks and something perhaps you’ve been struggling with suddenly makes sense. You can read a bit about my story on my About Page. But I also want to share some inspiring stories from other REAL people who have been positively affected by learning something about themselves.
Imagine what it would be like to constantly learn more about yourself and use that knowledge to accelerate your growth into a better version of yourself each day. Imagine what it would be like to know the strategies you needed to take to consistently reach your goals. Imagine what it would be like to communicate with the people around you more effectively and strengthen your relationships. Imagine what it would be like to pinpoint your fears and know what it takes to grow in your courage.
That life can be yours, my friend. It just takes patience and a motivation to put in the work to learn more about yourself. I would love to help you in this journey. That’s what I’m here for. I’m here to help YOU understand who you are and cultivate who you want to be.
Are you ready to take this journey with me? If so, join my team by subscribing below. This will put you on my mailing list and give you access to my secret resources page where you can grab my eBook for free called The Real You: The Ultimate Guide to Knowing Yourself and Developing Authenticity. In it you will find more information and worksheets to help you work through what we talked about today and more!
I am taking a leadership class at I was very surprised how much of the class is focusing on the individual and understanding oneself.
That’s awesome! It’s crazy how many aspects of our lives can be improved by having a growing awareness of ourselves. I remember we also discussed that in a leadership class I once took, too. In the context of leadership, it’s good to know our “leadership styles”, as well as our strengths so we can use them to our advantage and our weaknesses so we know what pitfalls to avoid.