He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon
whittle himself away.
There is no one alive who knows you better than you know yourself! Your likes, dislikes and indifferences should be more apparent to you than to anyone else. However, you may find it difficult at times to really commit to what you know about yourself.
Being true to yourself requires a lifetime of work. Life throws out all sorts of scenarios that test your knowledge of your true self and your commitment to living up to your own expectations. You would probably be the first to admit that there have been occasions when You have let yourself down or fallen short. This is nothing to be embarrassed about, it happens to even the most self-aware. Going forward from this point, you must keep in mind that it is a constant work in progress moving toward achieving complete honesty with yourself so you can avoid compromising your beliefs and values.
Being True to Your Own Reality
1. Think first. Think things through, then act quickly. Whenever you find yourself in a situation where you feel like you might end up being untrue to yourself, take a breath and a moment to think about the situation. Think about what it would mean if you did what you felt was right as opposed to giving in to expectations.
If you decide that you should stick to what you feel, act quickly to make sure that your point of view is heard. Sometimes, taking too long to make a statement dilutes their effectiveness, and people may actually doubt your sincerity and commitment to what you’ve declared.
2. Assess the root of each situation. One key thing that you can do when your ideals are being questioned is to stop and ask yourself why someone else is pushing you to go against your own beliefs. Are they not placing enough value on your point of view? This may be a time to reconsider your relationship with that person. Are they really here to build you up or do they seem to spend most of their time trying to break you down? Ideally, you want to associate with those people who support your individuality. They nay not agree with every idea that you present, but they should respect you.
3. Trust your gut. In many cases, you will find that the pit of your stomach gives both physical and psychological clues about whether you’re being true to yourself or not. Take a moment to think about this. How often has your stomach ended up in knots when you have found yourself in an uncomfortable situation? That gut feeling rarely lies. If you pay close enough attention to it, you will see that it pops up whenever there is some kind of disconnect going on. Maybe your moral stance about something is coming under fire. But when you try to ignore your gut, it will usually come back to play on your conscience.
Situations and circumstances will arise almost daily that will throw off your commitment to your moral positions. You will feel pressured to agree with popular beliefs, even though deep down inside you may not agree. You may even feel the urge to do something that’s completely wrong and out of your natural character because you feel doing otherwise would be detrimental.
But at the end of the day, when all those situations have passed, you will still have to live with yourself and your decisions. You still have to come to terms with the decisions you have made and live with knowing that the outcome was based solely on your choices – good or bad.
The best way forward is to pay closer attention to who you are and what you want out of life. Achieve your fullest potential. Remember that you are in charge of the direction of your life!
Thoughts?
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/assbach/551725158/sizes/z/in/photostream/
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