Who do you think you are?

Just who do you think you are?  Do you have a clear vision of who you are?  Who you are as an individual.  I want you to think about it for a minute.  What thoughts come to mind when you ask yourself this question?  Grab paper and a pen and write down the words and phrases that describe you.

Now take a look at the paper.  Do these words describe your true self?  or do they describe more about what you do and less about who you are?

Understanding yourself and then being yourself takes courage, commitment and faith.  It is a process of letting go of many of the false beliefs you have probably picked up along the way.  Being yourself can be scary, difficult and sometimes even lonely. 

But when you discover your authentic self that can be liberating, exciting and very fulfilling.  When you have the courage to just be who you are without apology or pretense so much of the suffering, stress and worry in life simply disappears. 

What does it mean to be authentic?  It is about enjoying a new sense of freedom to be who we really are – naturally and without a mask to conform to someone else’s view of who you should be.

Celebrate who you are!  Stop spending so much time and energy focused on what you think is “wrong” with you and start celebrating who you are!

The ultimate goal of being ourselves authentically is actually, about loving ourselves in a generous way.  If we don’t love ourselves, nothing much really matters.  No matter what we conquer, create or experience, we’re never able to appreciate it or ourselves or be fulfilled in the process.

So in order to love ourselves we need to appreciate our genuine self.  So who are you genuinely?  Who would you be without the life experiences you have had?  without your accomplishments or failures?  Without your job or its title?  Just who are you?

The famous 19th Century author and poet Oscar Wilde once said, “Be yourself – everyone else is already taken.”