180 DEGREES OF AUTHENTICITY
Weaving Your Past Self and Future Self Into Your "Real Self"
Hi It’s Eva, and welcome back to Wild Authentic Xplore where we dive deep with the question of authenticity and how to become more authentic as we move through life. And of course, the whole point of being authentic is to experience more happiness and internal, and external, wellbeing.
I’ve been deep in production of the book Chasing the Wild Authentic, which should be out early November, and in anticipation of it coming out, have been doing some media. And just this past week I was on a podcast and was asked a very central question: “What is authenticity?”
And of course we all bandy the term about as if we all are coming from the same place in our understanding of what authenticity is. Typically, when people refer to being authentic, they’re talking about “being real,” as in “just be real.” Well, I'm not even sure what that means, except what I have come to understand, which is something like just express or act on what you feel in the moment.
But of course, this can, and often does land us in hot water, because what might be true in one moment might not necessarily be true in the next moment. Who we are today—and who we think we are, and our real opinion, and our real action—might not reflect who we are next week. It might even take us down a wrong path later on when we don't feel so strongly or maybe feel differently about some situation. So this thing about “just be real”; I don't think it’s going to take us where we want to go. It’s also the complete opposite of what we talk about when we talk about being authentic in Chasing the Wild Authentic.
So, when I talk about authenticity, what I'm really talking about is 180 degree authenticity. Any of us remember back to math? It really is a line that connects our past to our future, and the moment that we're in is really somewhere on that line.
In our work with authenticity we look at the moment. Is it reflecting the best parts of my past, and the parts of my past that I want to carry forward? Is it acknowledging those things, and is it directing me to a future that is in alignment with my most authentic dreams?
So being aware of the past, being aware of the future, and then bringing all of that awareness into the moment—aligning all of that with what is true for me in this moment—that is the kind of work that we do on this path of authenticity.
So we go back into the past. It's really about considering the past. What are the stories of my particular past and which ones do I believe are true for me and really represent my truth? Not the truth that I've been told about me, but MY truth? And how do I extend that authentic truth forward? That's the work of the past.
And then we look to the future. What are my dreams, and are my dreams authentic dreams? Do they really represent who I am and who I want to be, or are they more aligned with all kinds of stories about who I should be, what has value, and what I “should” be pursuing to have value. Doing THAT differentiation work.
So on the path of active authenticity, we do the differentiation work of the past and the differentiation work of the future. And when we have those nuggets, we bring that awareness into our present, and then when we are presented with situations, we operate from not only what's true for us in the present, but we do so with an awareness of the past that we want to extend forward and the authentic future that we're driving toward. We operate along a 180 degree trajectory to act authentically.
And just a note. When I say the present, I'm also talking about our present commitments—to ourself and others—because authenticity is not just about what we feel and expressing what we feel.
It's also about our commitments and the full circle of things that make us who we are. So it's making decisions and acting from THAT place.
Now, if that all sounds complicated, okay, but I prefer to call it a rich authenticity and an active authenticity, and the steps on how to do it, and do it with ease, are in my forthcoming book, Chasing the Wild Authentic, a Field Guide to the Practices, Boundaries, and North Star of Living Your Truth. Out in the beginning of November. And if you want to hear the full podcast interview of which today’s lesson is but a small sampling, head over to my website: www.wildauthentic.com, and take a look under the media tab, and videos.
Okay everyone. Talk again soon.
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