Be authentic and honest to yourself - that’s half the way to a successful life done
We all know these people that seem to have their life in perfect order. They have a great job, well raised children and just seem to always live on the lucky side of life. However, when we look a bit closer it is not all luck. The question is therefore is - what do these people do right that they seem to have this perfect life plan that seem to always fall into place? The answer is – they are authentic, know what they want and are honest to themselves when it comes to their successes and failures, rather than trying to purely impress the people around them at any cost.
The first aspect to highlight here therefore is that of authenticity. Being authentic is key to success. However, for being authentic, the first underlying step is to know who we are and what we want exactly, where the trouble already starts for many people. This requires a lot of self-reflection, which many of us are not willing to do and find hard. By reflecting on ourselves, where we stand in life and what we imagine our own future to be like, as well as to regularly questions those desires, can help us gain clarity on where we want to take our life. It acts like a filter function is a world of ever-growing possibilities. While possibilities are great, they can also make us feel lost and loose track if we are not very clear on what we want and can filter those options out of all the opportunities that present themselves to us. Once we know what we want, we can be our authentic self that helps us connect with likeminded people and project our strength onto others. Authenticity is a desirable trait for leaders, as it makes us seem strong, inspiring, and honest in the eyes of others.
Next to authenticity, the other trait we need to push for ourselves is that if self- honesty. This is way more difficult in a world of social media, where everything is about optimizing our self-image. We do not like to show our weaknesses and failures to others and shy more and more away from this. It is important that we are honest to ourselves when thing go wrong and know for ourselves when our life is going into a direction, we are not happy with. Why is this important? Because only when we know we are unhappy and have that awareness through being honest to ourselves can we change it. Otherwise, we just learn to adjust and live with it, which ultimately results in unhappiness and frustration.
Being authentic and self-honest is therefore a strong combination for a successful foundation in life. It helps us develop a so-called red line or rough plan in life and cross out things that might lead us to wrong turns or drifting away from the idea of our life we hold. Of course, ever growing external influences and noise make it much harder for those two straits to occupy a large space in our life. We need to stop being focused on constant self-optimization and go back to inner reflection and honesty, even if that might sometimes be painful when things turned out differently than we expected or hoped for.
Looking back on those people that seem to have bundled all the lick in life, this is exactly what those people have - authenticity and self-honesty that makes them have and stick to a clear plan. Of course, we need to consider that things are dynamic and change, which is why our life plan can be adjusted, however, it is good to have some clear guidance to stick to even when times get confusing and rough. Authenticity and self-honesty, while not always easy to live by, it will make us reach our goals in the long term with great rewards awaiting that will allow us to also be one of those incredibly lucky people our there.
