At work, we wear many different hats. Some days we’re in sales, some days we’re in operations, most days we’re in multiple positions in one day. In life, we are different people in different situations that may explain a little bit more … When you’re home, you’re one version of yourself, when you’re with your friends, you’re a different version of yourself, and when you’re at work, I like to think you’re a combination of both. My kids always made jokes that I have three versions of myself — they even mocked me (in a good way) on my work voice vs my mom voice. If you Google being authentic or being your true self it will pull up thousands of articles. How do you not get lost or confused if you’re trying to uncover your true self? We all want our personality to shine and we want to be “real” and you can and should! Now of course it goes without saying that there is a certain way you need to act in certain situations but you should always, in my opinion, be yourself. People want to be friends with — and work with — the best true version of you, not the version that has been created to fit in. We can all agree that sometimes we prefer to just fit in because it is easy, requires less work, and less emotion.
If you are ready to be your true authentic self, face it head on! It will take a lot of self reflection and won’t happen overnight.
Here are steps you can take to be your true self.
- Identify your values.
- Identify who you want to be.
- Identify who you have been and what you would like to change. Be consistent with how you portray yourself.
- Be confident in yourself.
- Let your personality shine bright and don’t let anyone take away your sparkle!
- Face your fears of taking off your mask.
- Identify your circle — are there relationships that are holding you back?