87. authentic

Our culture plays the convincing game that nothing really ever happens unless it gets attention (e.g., likes or views). If you shout, and don’t year an echo, it seems like the shout didn’t happen. Doing anything today, without getting a response, is almost like it never happened. This is a real hang-up we have. We like to hear echoes — like singing in the shower, where there is more resonance — so we manufacture a persona out of what we think the world will like so that we can absorb the reverberations and know that we are somebody.

However, that somebody isn’t you. It’s not authentic. The last time anyone was truly authentic was when they were a baby. When the only thing we knew was to be uniquely ourselves, existing on desire and impulse. The process of “growing up” dissolves that authenticity because we eventually figure out that our actions play a part in the attention we receive, so we start acting differently in search of attention. But in acting a certain way to gain attention, we lose the truly authentic part of ourselves.

So we wander through life acting a certain way, not because it is who we are, but who we’ve become. No one really knows us because we haven’t been ourselves as long as we can remember. The behaviors we learned, to get the attention we were seeking have become us — the inauthentic self. Ask yourself if anyone truly knows who you are? If the answer is no, it’s because you haven’t allowed yourself to be vulnerable enough to show the world your true self.