Keep it 100 & Live a Truly Authentic Life

Authenticity can and will vary from person to person. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Being authentic comes from knowing yourself and what you want out of life. Are you keeping it 100? Read on to find out.

Self-limiting Beliefs

It is difficult to lead an authentic life when you are coming from a place of fear and self-limiting beliefs. When these are strong, it is easy to fall into leading a life by what we think we “should” do, rather than by what we want to do. 

For example, maybe you really wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career but were pressured to go to college and major in business because it was “safer”. If this is not true to who you are and who you want to be, it’s likely you won’t be happy taking this route long term. This is a prime example of a route taken out of fear and self-limiting beliefs instead of true alignment.

Reconnect with yourself 

It’s common to feel like you lost yourself along the way to leading the life you really wanted. Recognizing this is the first step towards reconnecting with yourself and your true purpose. 

To begin, ask yourself the following (Write down the answers somewhere that you can reference as often as needed):

• • Do I enjoy the majority of my life, or am I unhappy most of the time?

• • Is there a hobby or passion I want to pursue that I am currently not making time for, if so, what is it?

• • Am I happy in my relationship, or do I feel like I am settling?

• • If I was at the end of my life today, what would be my biggest regret?

Get clear

When you know the answers to the above questions you can better understand yourself, where you’re headed, and if it’s the best direction for you or not. 

Next, move forward with the following.

• • Meditate on your desires to know how you really feel, and what you really want

• • Remove relationships and people that no longer serve you in your best journey

• • Be honest about who you are and what you want, speak your truth without fear

• • Re-align your habits and how you spend your time and energy to what you desire

• • Let go of the fear of judgment from others

• • Trust your gut, your intuition is a better guiding light than “society”

• • Act out of love, and not fear

Attracting the wrong crowd

While it can be tempting to shapeshift and people please in order to gain a bunch of new friends and be liked, it will inevitably backfire. 

When you are not living an authentic life, you are far more likely to put on different personas depending on the people you are around. The further you get from your authentic self the more challenging it becomes to keep up with. On a basic level, it will feel like you’re lying to yourself because in a way…you are.

Conversely, when you live an authentic life, you don’t have to change your personality depending on the crowd. This makes life way easier for you, and the people you chose to surround yourself.

Why?

Because those who are not aligned with your values won’t want to stick around, and vice versa. Stay true to yourself and everything else will fall into place.

Live your life, your way

When you stop to think about it, it’s pretty cool that we’re alive right now. It won’t always be that way, so why are you living your life out of fear? We all end up in the same place, so you might as well enjoy this ride while you’re on it and make it the best one possible. It can be difficult to know if you’re living authentically or not, especially when you are caught up in a whirlwind of life and all that goes along with it. 

We have to take the time to be vulnerable with ourselves. It takes intention to sit down and ask ourselves the hard questions and give honest answers. It’s even more difficult to know what to do after that. Breathe. Know that if you are not living your authentic life, it’s not too late. This post serves as a jumping-off point for you to do so. If you need more help along the way, I’d love to get you there.

If you struggle with anxious, self-critical, racing thoughts and consider yourself an overthinker then don’t worry..I’ve got you…Check out The Overthinking Toolkit.