Authenticity, WHAT?
No excuses, but life has gotten in the way and my blog has suffered because of it. Ugh. Worst. BUT, as good ol’ Bobby Dylan once put it, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”
Now, to the point at hand: Authenticity.
It’s a topic I’ve touched on, well, a few times. But it seems as though lately, a series of events, conversations, and life en general have further solidified my feelings on the subject. So, in summary, when it comes to authenticity:
Be who you are and rock the heck out of it.
Stop letting other people dictate what you should do, how you should dress, and what you should say. When it comes to applying for a job, throw the conventions of what you’re “supposed” to do out the window. Do what you know you should do (*within reason of course). If it’s been six months of looking for a job, and you still don’t have a job, change your way of thinking. Shift your priorities. Stop spending 119210928 hours in front of your computer applying for jobs online and get out there and use the people who know and love you. It’s not using them and abusing them, it’s taking your most natural resources that you have access to and being a genuine networking pimp.
Your friends, former co-workers, professors, and the like know you better than anyone. Ask if they know someone? Make that call. Make that connection. Go to another event and be awesome. Be memorable. Stop whining.
And when it’s not a job, but when it comes to life, just be yourself. I know it sounds trite, but I feel like the interwebs, and tv, and the opposite sex, and the same sex are all pressuring us to be/act/behave/talk/walk/sneeze a certain way. Stop pleasing other people. You can’t make other people happy until you, yourself, are happy.
Case in point – someone once told me my laugh was too loud. [SCREEEEEEECH] Guess what? I immediately shut down, became self conscious, and had a mini-identity crisis. Then I realized, that person sucks and needs to lighten up. Sure, I laugh loudly. Who cares? My dad has a loud laugh, my mom had a loud laugh, my sister has a loud laugh, and my family is happy and we love each other unconditionally and dinners (when we see each other) are hilarious.
Lighten up. Be yourself. And I guarantee, things will start happening for you. Whatever it is you want from life (relationships, dreams, jobs, money, whatever), it will come once you throw away the conventions and notions of what you THINK other people want to see, and you start being yourself and doing what you know to be true.
In my short 24 and a half years of life I’ve learned the following:
- Laugh a lot.
- Laugh loudly.
- Work your butt off.
- Laugh some more.
- Work harder.
- Love your friends.
- Love your family.
- Love unconditionally.
- Work even harder.
- Relax and don’t take it too seriously.
What do you think? Am I full of it? If so, tell me.
*All rules of authenticity are moot when general self-respect, decency, and not making a damn fool of yourself come into play.
Oh, two weeks ago I met the man with the world’s most contagious laugh. He exists. Thus, here’s proof that I, too, love to laugh:
Word.
Amen, sister!!