Living Authentically
In the latest episode of one of my favorite Swedish podcasts, Alex & Sigge, the author Sigge Eklund said something interesting:
It's unhealthy to constantly think about how others perceive you. It can lead you down the wrong path in life.
So very true! How others perceive us is not our problem, it's theirs (within reasonable limits, of course).
If we're constantly trying to adapt to other people's likes and dislikes, then we're living an incomplete life. We're living a double lie where we're lying to both others and ourselves. We're living inauthentically.
We become an impersonal person, a persona; a word derived from the Latin words per-sonare (sounding through), which was used to describe the masks of actors back in the day. That's exactly what we become if we follow others' scripts blindly: characters in the theater of life.
If I had worried about how I was perceived when I decided to trade my desk for my dream, I would never have gotten started. It sounded crazy to the outside world, but inside I knew it was right.
Of course, it's good to listen to other people's advice and consider it when making big decisions. But in the end, it's what feels right for us, that indefinable feeling inside, that must come first if we want to live life to the fullest.
The right answer is usually the one that's closest to us. That's our true guide to living authentically.