Being true to yourself

"ALWAYS BE A FIRST-RATE VERSION OF YOURSELF, INSTEAD OF A SECOND-RATE VERSION OF SOMEBODY ELSE"

Judy Garland

We arrive into this world as unique individuals born with different talents, different beliefs and different looks and personalities, yet throughout our lives we are exposed to external societal, religious, social, entertainment and family-based influences that may not be aligned with our core fundamentals and beliefs.

As a result,  some people wind up being in the precarious situation (and realization) that the person who others perceive them to be really just isn't them at all, which is sad....

The questions we should ask ourselves are:

Is it more important to us regarding how others perceive us or is it more important as to how we perceive ourselves?

Does one (perception) affect the other? 

Is not being true to ourselves worth the sacrifice in favor of a misguided perception of us by others? 

Being true to yourself means to act in accordance with who you are and what you believe,  not aligning your looks, your thoughts your core fundamentals or your beliefs with others to fit a certain perception of who you are or should be (credit :essential life skills . net).

How it happens

Think about the external influences in your life growing up and as an adult....weren't there influences and some pressure to get good grades, dress a certain way, act and look a certain way, etc....same with school age friends.... and as teenagers many of us had the social desire to "fit in" with a group we wanted to be a part of for whatever reason.  Did we sometimes sacrifice our persona to appear to be somebody we weren't? 

                                                     Do we still?

What do our clothes, our weight, our hair, our kids and our lifestyle say to others about us?  Where did we get those desires to be a certain way, and.... does what we think we want to be really align with who we  are as individuals?    To some of us, possibly...to others of us maybe not! 

The key to being true to yourself is to respect and love who YOU ARE, not be the type of person that willingly fits into a mold of what others want them to be.

Be true to yourself.  Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?  In reality,many times it is not...however, once you decide in your heart of hearts that absolutely NOTHING is worth sacrificing your unique, individual self for - guess what?

It becomes so.

"You were born an original.  Don't die a copy"

John Mason