Authenticity and Keeping It Real

Authenticity is a popular term currently used in the self-help, personal development field and I am reminded time and time again about how few people are truly authentic.

Case in point: I see social media posts from people who are militant about promoting a certain lifestyle or diet and are busy giving the impression of their “perfect life” as an example to behold. It is a difficult standard to keep. The difficulty is made worse when seeing first-hand that they and their kids are ill, eating junk, and out of control. In other words, the external world projected doesn’t match the internal life.

Recently, I attended a seminar where the speaker was professing a zen-like persona, telling us what to do, how to live, and sharing strategies to be congruent. I guess they forgot about it when off the stage as I saw the speaker bullying hotel staff at the front desk after failing to receive a desired hotel room. Hmm, makes me wonder.

There are a lot of people who are nobly working on personal development. While I’m not perfect and never professed to be, I am pretty transparent. In other words, how I conduct myself on the stage is pretty much the same as how I conduct myself when off the stage. My persona doesn’t turn on or off depending on who’s looking. People who know me would say I keep it real.

The point of this blog is simple. How often do you show others the real you? Is your onstage performance the same as your off stage persona? Does your outside life reflect your inside thoughts, beliefs, feelings and actions? Are you pretending to be something you’re not? Do you put on a “face” for others?

This requires vulnerability but isn’t living life the way you are or what you’re working towards better than trying to be something you know you’re not?