In A World That Favors The Shallow And The Fake, Be Someone Authentic

In a world that favors the shallow and the fake, be someone authentic and genuine.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to be like everyone else. It’s easy to become engrossed into copying the lifestyle of another person when you feel that you are missing something in yourself. What others may seem to have in abundance — happiness, willpower, social ease, self-confidence, emotional tranquility — may seem like foreign lands to you at first.

But given time and sufficient perspective, I hope you do come to the realization that the uncertainty about aspects of your personality and self-image is only because you haven’t been true to yourself. Because being someone so fundamentally different that you dare to stand out from the rest is a lot harder; It’s a lot more difficult because it goes against the status quo.

But what the world needs is more of your laughter and your smile. More of the nuances of your personality—your clumsiness, your goofiness, your playfulness, and your endearing sides. The world needs to see more fearlessness and more of you because your heart and mind is a breathtaking place to be in.

If you look inward, you’ll see a mosaic, with each particular piece having a part to play. Most importantly, each piece has its own beauty and it’s own intricacies. Without a singular mosaic piece, the picture wouldn’t be complete. You wouldn’t be complete.

Indeed, a mosaic can represent a somewhat accurate capture of human nature — we cultivate identities and self-images based on the bigger picture. But where we went wrong is that by attempting to hold onto specific identities (the styles, preferences, or qualities that you find attractive in others), you ultimately are still left uncertain about who you really are.

So at the end of the day, who should you be?

Be someone so effortlessly yourself.

Be someone who doesn’t feel the need to impress others. Be someone who has a heart of pure gold that overextends and overflows love to friends, family, and maybe even strangers. Be someone who is so comfortable with being in your own skin and being vulnerable that it’s so hard to be someone you’re not.

Be someone individualistic and unique. Be someone so honest with yourself that you can feel all your feelings and see your motives, contradictions, and emotional conflicts without denying or suppressing them.

Be a human being.

The best piece of advice in love and relationships is to be yourself, warts and all. It’s the vulnerability, the weak parts of yourself that make you feel icky and reeling from having your chest ripped open and exposed, that is real and honest. It’s the secret self that you have privately nurtured and hidden from the world that deserves to be loved and validated the most.

It can be difficult to show your imperfections, flaws, personal or potentially shameful parts of yourself. It can also feel like you’re at a disadvantage or in a predicament because it may seem that others may not necessarily like what they discover once they see your “deficiencies. ”

But one of the biggest challenges in life is to learn to let go of old ideas from the past, the belief that it’s not okay to have differences from others. By believing there’s something fundamentally horrible about you, you’re unable to experience or enjoy your many good qualities.

So grow by learning to see that much of your old story is not true — or at least, it is not true anymore. Once you begin to stop telling yourself the old tale, it is irrelevant to who you are right now.

Be brave and show someone who you are.