Authenticity : Owning and acting in accordance with
your true self.
Authenticity is a buzz word in today’s leading edge
circles.
When I gave a speech in Mountain View, CA on the
topic, the room was jam packed wall to wall and people were standing.
Our culture craves authenticity.
The reason you crave authenticity is because there
is so much in-authenticity in our daily lives.
And in yourself.
Most people are still seeking the answer to life’s
big question:
Who am I?
You fight this question all day every day.
Problems leading to in-authenticity and discontent
include:
1) Listening to others beyond yourself
2) Being to busy to make time to self reflect.
3) Being out of touch with the voice inside.
4) Encountering 48 barriers to authenticity
You are told who we are and who you ought to be by
our job, family, culture, religion, and education.
You have lost touch with the seed of your own soul’s
voice because you focus on the external world so much and pleasing those around
you.
As you are externally driven in your achievements,
your driving, your eating, your job, and with your family, this leaves little
room for self exploration.
Self reflection and introspection are imperative to
your heart’s deepest levels of contentment.
Beyond the focus of whatever is going on outside of
yourself, you have an absent mindedness where 47% of the time you are thinking
of something that isn’t really going on.
If you are listening to others over yourself, if you
are never allotting time for your own self reflection, you probably are also
out of touch with your own inner voice.
There is a difference from the truth in our mind
versus the truth in your heart. The truth in your mind is convoluted with your
subconscious belief system and your conscious struggle in achievement and
pursuit of inner peace.
This voice in your heart is where your secret to
contentment lies.
Your mind is to smart and will justify things are
the way they are or how they should be.
Your heart simply knows your soul’s truth.
When asked the right questions within the right
process, contentment is possible as a real sustainable result.
When you have contentment in your heart, you feel a
bold fulfillment in your heart’s center that is ever present, opposite of an
empty feeling inside, separate from your emotional state.
Peace of mind is possible at this point, making the
mind a tranquil pond.
Beyond asking the right questions and following the
right process, you have to allow empowerment, positive mood and resiliency to
be your focus before you are truly able to reach the depths of your
contentment.
The depths and breath of the complexity of
authenticity are beyond most peoples understanding of the topic.
Seems simple, right? Just be yourself.
Who knew there were 48 barriers you would
potentially have to get though to be totally authentic.
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Knowing the answer to Who Am, I then being able to
achieve relational transparency is the next step.
Authenticity is owning and acting in accordance with
your true self.
Owning your true self takes time. Acting as your
true self also takes time.
Not only does it take time, it takes persistence,
diligence, acceptance and confidence to overcome any of 48 barriers to
authenticity.
I had a 3 month leadership experience in graduate
school where I ‘tested’ my authentic leadership and discovered I encountered 30
of the 48 barriers that can steer us toward inauthenticity.
After so much attention and the belief I was being
authentic, it was a hard awakening to see the stark difference between what I
am saying and what I am thinking and feeling inside.
This led me to a gigantic leap in my self awareness,
personal authenticity and gave me true insight on how I was relating with the
people I was leading.
The path of authenticity is a spectrum. It is situational.
It is developmental and ever evolving.
As the development of contentment takes time and
effort, once achieved, it is like surfing the best wave life has to offer.
As we all are on the path of self actualization, we
need to allow our authenticity to unfold naturally, with conscious awareness,
acceptance and confidence. You must spend time with yourself asking the deeper
questions and being true to yourself ir-regardless of the barriers we
constantly face to develop our truest and deepest heart’s contentment.
Contentment as a form of sustainable happiness.
Authenticity as a construct of Contentment.
21 steps to reach eudaimonia or sustainable
contentment.
I am offering a Proactive and Practical Path to Contentment.
This is an illumination of step four of the five
steps of sustainable happiness.
Would you like to contribute to this conversation?
* Note *
For more information
on my dissertation research:
Toward authentic leadership crisis prevention:
identification of barriers to relational authenticity in self-awareness
Part 1
Part 2
Dr Aymee Coget
Sustainable Happiness Doctor
sfhappinessdoctor at gmail dot com
www.happinessmakeover.com
Thank you for this post. Authenticity is a very powerful and important topic. These days with all the social media outlets, the facebook posts, the twitter tweets, the selfies... we all want to express ourselves and demonstrate our uniqueness and our individuality. Unfortunately, much of it is inauthentic. People trying to be clever. People trying to impress others. People trying to demonstrate authenticity but it is oftentimes superficial and hollow. Is it authentic to post what you had for lunch. I suppose. But I believe all these postings come from the ego, from the mind, as you pointed out, and not from the heart. There is an expression, be yourself, everyone else is taken. and there's the expression, to thine own self be true. It's not always easy being authentic because we fear what others might say or think. Best we release those concerns and express ourselves in our families, in our work, in our interactions with others in a way that reflects our Inner Light and Love. Because if Love is not in the equation, in my opinion, you will never be authentic. Thanks again, Dr. Aymee. I love the work you're doing!
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