How To Be Who You Really Are

To be authentic, you need to be able to stand up for yourself, for your life, for your relationships,
and for your future. If you are not for yourself, then you are against yourself.

If you want to be yourself, your real self, then practice the following strategies every day.

Always tell yourself the truth. In his book Authentic: How to be Yourself And Why it Matters, 
Stephen Joseph writes, 'To be authentic, we need to be able to face up to the truth
about ourselves, no matter how unpleasant we might find it.'' If you respect yourself, others will
respect you. If you are not true to yourself, if you are not being honest with yourself,
you are not deceiving other people; you are deceiving yourself. And it is not good for your
growth and development. Because you can't help yourself. So if you want to move forward 
in your life, be an authentic person, no matter what.

Always take responsibility for your life. It is your life. You can do whatever you want with it.
That includes taking responsibility for your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions. When it comes to you,
you are responsible for everything in your life. In the words of Stephen Joseph, 'Authentic people
take resposibility for for their choices in life.'' If you want to be successful, you must be the boss 
of your life. If not, you will find it difficult to express your real self.

Do not follow the crowd. If you want to be different, you must do things differently. If you want
a different result, you must think differently. To do that, you must be able to stand on your own. 
You must be able to live with yourself. Do not try to fit in. Instead of trying to fit in, why not try to fit out?
To quote Stephen, 'Authenticity requires you to be able to overcome our desires to fit in and be 
part of the crowd.'' If you want to grow, don't work to be like other people, work to be like yourself.
Because you can never be like another person. So trying to do it is a total waste of your time.

Always pay attention to how you feel about yourself. In her book Now Go Out There and get curious, Mary Karr writes, 'Don't make the mistake of comparing your twisted-up insides to people's blow-dried outsides.'' That is what you should always do. Do not worry about what others are posting on 
their social media accounts. Focus on your own life. Focus on how you want to achieve your dreams.
That is more important than comparing yourself to other people. Accodring to Stephen, 'Authenticity 
requires that we are aware of what's going on in our bodies; that we are not only attentive to our 
feelings and mindful of our thinking but to all that is happening within us.'' Do not ignore your internal self,
no matter what.