AUTHENTICITY – Are you living authentically?

Posted October 7, 2014 | by Michelle Costanzo | in Values and Authentic Living

You hear about living authentically but what does it mean?

It is simple. It is about being

GENUINE

ACTING HONESTLY

LIVING IN SYNERGY WITH YOUR VALUES!

This sounds easy you may say.

If it were that easy, there wouldn’t be:

bullying in the workplace
people wouldn’t be having extra marital affairs
people wouldn’t be acting fraudulently, and
the biggest imposter at work wouldn’t have just received that promotion!

Right???

The sad thing is that people live this way not knowing who they really are, or what they stand for.

When people don’t have clarity of their values, it is difficult to live in an authentic way.

We have all seen the behaviour of someone who is not living authentically, or perhaps we have seen the behaviour in our own actions or choices that we make.

For example –

Some people jump into relationships that they know from the outset are going to be bad for them
Others choose a career path that doesn’t sit with who they really, or
People may drink too much – take drugs – compulsively eat, and the list goes on…

This may keep you happy for a short while but over the long term of your life, it may lead to destruction, pain, and loneliness.

So acting authentically can only occur by getting to know you!

Getting to know yourself is one of the most amazing experiences.

We spend hours getting to know our friends, partners, spouses, children, family, co-workers, but sometimes people don’t put in enough time to get to know and understand themselves.

It is liberating when you go through your own values and own them – THEY ARE YOURS!

They are not your parents values that you have been carrying around for years, or something you picked up and thought you had to own because it sounded good, or your friends, family, or partner ect has that value.

Living authentically is all about living and acting within ‘your’ values.

What are values?

Values are part of your life that you find extremely important. They are the very core beliefs that guide you on how you live in a way that brings fulfilment, satisfaction, and meaning in your life.

Whether you realise it or not, choices that you make in your life (the small ones and the big ones) are all based around your values. We can choose to move towards our values and live in a way that is in synergy with our values, or we can choose to behave in ways that take us away from our values. Our values are a strong motivator for work, career, love, friends, family, play, and life in general.

You can understand that sometimes it takes courage to live authentically, within our values… but

What happens when you start living by “YOUR” values?