Know Thy Self

My apologies for today’s and tomorrow’s Daily Note arriving a little later than usual. I’m in Vegas speaking at a conference and as I’ve shared, the notes write themselves each morning, so I’m operating on west coast time for the next couple of days.

Later this afternoon I’ll be participating in a panel about the impact authenticity can have on growing your business—this is a conference for financial advisors but the discussion is relevant for everyone. As I was thinking about the discussion and what we have mapped out for how we think the conversation will go, I realized an important part of being your authentic Self that I’m not sure we’ll touch on…

You cannot be your authentic Self if you do not know your authentic Self.

Far more people claim to be authentic than they actually are. With the rise of social media, leveraging personal brands, and the constant opportunity to compare yourself against others, it’s no surprise that people embellish, pretend, or sometimes even flat-out lie about who they are. 

One reason, the main reason in my opinion, for the struggle to be authentic is a lack of knowing AND accepting who you are. 

When you have taken the time to get to know your Self, work on the areas that need to be worked on, accept who you are, and are happy with that version of your Self you cannot be anything but authentic; you no longer seek the approval of others–you have found it within. 

Finding this happiness within your Self frees you from having to pretend to be someone you’re not to appeal to everyone. You can just be you and allow yourself to be surrounded by the individuals with whom you resonate or are operating on a similar frequency as you. And when you’re not wasting energy pretending to be someone you’re not you have more energy to be an even better version of your authentic Self.

You will always hear that a key to being successful is having the ability to be authentic because it is an extremely powerful characteristic. It is worth the time and energy to connect with your inner Self, become proud of that version of your Self, and unapologetically be that version of your Self (and the future iterations to come) all of the time.

When you can do that, being authentic is something you don’t think about, you just are.

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC