Who are you?
Do you really know?
It’s a scary question to most people.
With social media, people can easily represent the person they want others to see.
What does your Instagram or Facebook page say about you? But is that the REAL you?
Facing ourselves is scary.
What about the people around you? Can you really be yourself around them?
I will admit that there are many days that I don’t like the real me. There are some days it’s just not easy being me. I’m not one who has ever been overly confident but in recent years I have learned to be content with myself. The real me.
Now I am far from perfect but I recognize who I really am and know my place.
I am never the attention-seeker nor the life of the party. I would never be comfortable with that position. I am usually the quiet one and will participate when I find my spots but mostly I blend into the background. I’m okay with that role more now than I used to be. I’m usually not given much of a thought but I have become okay with that.
The key to being the real you is to be honest with yourself about you.
For a majority of my life I didn’t like who I was. I had a very low self-esteem and was very sensitive to what people thought of me. My life was ruled by doing things so people would not make fun of me. It was a very frustrating existence for a long time. I wasted so many years consumed with this.
So what changed me?
I had to change my thinking and I also changed my life. Several years ago I made a drastic change and I met someone who made me a better person. I finally found someone who liked the real me. I found confidence in that and my life changed from that day forward.
You have to stop trying to please people. That is the number one thing to liking who you are. When I was going through my “change” I watched a new Robin Hood movie and in the movie Robin Hood’s father asked his son “are you ready to be who you are?”
We have to ask that question and then make the commitment to be who we are and not what others want us to be. My life had been driven by a life where I spent so much time trying to please everyone else yet I was the one who was miserable because I wasn’t pleasing me. I know that sounds selfish but at some point you need to put yourself first otherwise you will just stuff all of the expectations down inside and live a miserable life.
I still have some moments when I find myself sliding back into those old thoughts and feelings. I have learned to not stay there and shake away that feeling. I’m not going back there. Never again.
The most important thing I have learned is to just be the best version of you that you can be. Don’t compete with others. Just be who you are. Don’t let others dictate who you are.
With about 99% of the friends and family in my life, I have always had to be the one who kept the relationship going. I always have to initiate the communication. I am always the one who has to make the effort. I have concluded that I don’t HAVE to do that. If someone wants to be in your life they will. I no longer let that inequity affect who I am. You are only important many people when they need something. It’s time to just admit the painful truth and accept it for what it is. Just take what you get. Don’t take offense to things you can’t control.
I am far from perfect. I still get moody and have days when I simply don’t get it right. Those days will happen. I lose my temper and say things I shouldn’t but I don’t let the bad moments define me.
Life is too short to live frustrated that you can’t be yourself.
Find yourself.
Be yourself.
Love yourself…the REAL you!
