How Authentic Are You?
You owe it to yourself and the world to show the true magnificence of your being.
The Hybebeast Magazine of September 29, 2020, revealed a shocking story of the so-called influencers renting luxurious private jets, solely for the purpose of taking selfies. Most of these selfies end up online to deceive their followers how successful they have become from the ‘’course programme’’ they are just about to teach you. They teach you how you can get gargantuan income streams in as little as in a few weeks.
It all seems real until you learn the hard truth. You have lost the huge course fee, and they are not that successful, but they are faking it. Making Money Online (MMO), though possible and achievable takes time, and is slow progress. Like anything of value, it requires patience, consistency, and dedication.
Why Are People Falling Over This Sort Of Fake Influencers?
The trend of quicky results and lifestyles are the ‘’cancer’’ that is eating today’s youth alive. No one wants to crawl anymore before walking. We are all in a hurry to ‘’achieve’’, to belong, and in our greed, we throw caution to the wind.
Some people even believe you have to fake it before you can live it. Hence the adage
‘’Fake it, until you make it’’
becomes a norm. Some erroneously teach that you have to reprogram your mindset to live the ‘’luxurious life’’ you want to manifest it in your life. I am not disputing the power of the mind in manifesting, but living a lie is not ideal for anyone.
Social Media is another avenue, where we can live a lie. We have so many Nigerian Princes who want to share their wealth with you even though they have never met you, the surgeon who is in love with you by just seeing your photo, brush-up profiles and status updates, etc. We all want to belong making us disconnect with reality.
Where will your credibility be when the truth finally comes out
This disconnection with reality is making us live a life of illusion, seeking unwarranted approval and camouflage. Let us now learn how to present our real self, first to ourself, and then to the world.
Learn The Six Ways To Cultivate Authenticity
- Know Yourself — and respect your values and space. Appreciate your achievements (so you really don’t have to pretend), your strength and weaknesses. All these will not make you fall for flattery but rather build up your self-confidence. There is a study that those who ‘fake’ lack self-confidence.
‘’Knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom.’’ Aristotle
Knowing and appreciating ourselves moves us away from who people want us to be. We don’t want others to define us, our happiness, our achievements and our goals. We know who we are, and who we want to be.
Examine our values. What values do we hold dear? This can go back to family beliefs, cultural orientation and or religious beliefs that can hold us down without knowing it. Release those that are no longer to you personally. Are we being truthful and realistic with issues that concern us? Are we looking at others as our role models? There is nothing wrong with this, other than if our so-called role models are faking it, it is bound to have an effect on us too.
2. Live In The Moment — A very practical way of being one’s authentic self is to live in the moment. Take each day as it comes, enjoy the benefits, successes and failures as they come. Look realistically at each, and work towards a solution with gratitude and appreciation.
‘’The joy of living, is the gratitude of the moment.’’ Laila Gifty Akita
Make a bold step to face your fears. We all have them, and until you face it, it is not going to be solved.
3. Practice Self-Love — You know yourself, now love yourself for who you are. Pamper yourself, buy yourself flowers, and don’t wait for others to pamper you. Go out of your way to spoil yourself. Do not deny yourself that love and care that you so crave from others, give it to yourself. Take yourself out, on holiday, eat-out, and movies. If you do not want to go alone, invite friends and or family members that you get along with.
‘’How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.’’ Rupi Kaur
4. Learn To Speak The Truth Always — You cannot be your authentic self if you still have to lie, no matter how small a cover-up is, it is still a lie. Remember if you tell one single lie, you need ten other lies to cover than one lie.
‘’If hell comes as a result of my speaking the truth, then let it come.’’ Harry Lennix
Making it a habit to speak the truth attracts positive people to you. They know and recognise your trustworthiness. They can rely on you and are eager to do business with you.
5. Develop Yourself — The world is constantly changing, so to be confident and authentic, you have to brush up your skill. Perhaps you have been trained in an old school, and there is now a new way of doing it, then go ahead and learn the new way. This will only add up for you, enabling you to work along with your professional colleague.
‘’The best investment you can make is in yourself.’’ Warren Buffett
Learn also to expand your knowledge. Learn new things, read wide. Know what is going on in the world, especially regarding your profession. Update yourself regularly, as this will enable you to discuss intelligently with your peers. Be open-minded and embrace the new age technology.
6. Listen to your inner self — There is a silent voice within us but is louder, listen to your intuition. This is our Spiritual Guidance. Man is never alone without a direction, without a spiritual helper, without a road-map. Are you listening to its direction?
‘’Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows.’’ Buddha Groove.
If you are one that is blind to the voice of guidance, then I am afraid that you are far from achieving your authentic self. You are far from achieving, far from being your happy, contented and fulfilling that is your right in the Spiritual order of things.
