Yes, I enjoy my writing/blogging life; no, I don’t always enjoy how I arrive at the lessons and inspirations I share. In laymen’s terms, the teacher has to go through first before he or she can give the lesson to the student. But I digress . . .
Whether on my radio show platform, motivational speaking endeavors, workshops or author & celebrity interviews, one theme reoccurs: authenticity. At times it is glaring, other times it is subtle and appears in the most unusual ways. Nevertheless, authenticity is as complex as most men say women are. [For my male readers, I think of you from time to time so that one is just for you.]
Living Authentically–we see it in hash tags, article taglines and talk show topics but what does it really mean? Even more intriguing, what does authenticity look like and how is it applied? Let’s take a brief walk to the dictionary:
Synonyms for the word authentic are genuine, real, veritable and share the sense of actuality and lack of falsehood or misrepresentation. Authentic carries a connotation of authoritative certification that an object is what it claimed to be:
- Genuine refers to objects or personas having the characteristics or source claimed or implies
- Real, the most general of these terms, refers to innate or actual--as opposed to ostensible--nature or character
- Veritable, derived from the Latin word for truth, suggests the general truthfulness but not necessarily the literal or strict correspondence with reality of that which it describes; it is often used metaphorically
See the problem? . . . authoritative certification . . . Who have you given the authority in your life to certify an object’s authenticity? In other words, what measurement tool(s) are you using? For some of us, we use our gut instinct: if I feel you’re trustworthy then you are. That might not always be the best indicator especially at times when we are too close to the subject or scarred by our past to make the proper assessment.
Many Christians would say they use God’s word as a frame of reference. Although I strongly encourage that, our interpretation or understanding of certain biblical precepts can also be flawed. Misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the Bible is problematic because too often we readily accept what is taught versus studying the word for ourselves as we are instructed to.
The synonym veritable also captured my attention and is where I believe a lot of us get stuck on the authenticity chain. Veritable is often used as an intensifier or metaphor; so itmay be true, resemble truth, is close to truth or only true as a statement or tale. If you examine certain areas of your life, this is probably one of your biggest problems.
- Is the person that peaks your interest, says they love you or that you have affection for, consumes most of your time or makes the greatest impact in your life . . . which part of the authentic definition does he or she fit? Are their motives, intent, words, actions and deeds indicative of truth or do they just resemble truth? Or thing really as they appear or are you living in a fool's paradise because you applied the intensifier adjective to authenticity versus scrutiny. [Scrutiny is not foolproof based on my previous comments but it is a good place to start.]
- The image you present to the world in your quest to live authentically, is that the genuine side of you or just the image you want people to see? Not saying you have to tell or show it all, but are you a pretender? Do we see the real you or a skewed representation? Do you even know the difference or are you lost in a game of show and tell?
I could expound upon this from various angles and perspectives but I think you get the gist. So many events in the world today and in our personal lives cause us to regularly question if anything is real anymore. We are often forced to question others’ intentions, truths and meaning in our lives. I am not suggesting you abandon this process but I am suggesting that you minimize your frustrations/confusions by searching within first.
- What is authenticity and what does it mean for you? Define it first or you will never live it
- How do you model it to yourself? Or else you will never be able to demonstrate it to others; what we model to ourselves is what we give the world
- What does authenticity look like and how is it demonstrated in the various layers of your life? This requires much reflection, soul searching and repeated self-analysis
- What are your expectations of others as it relates to authenticity and how will you request or demand it? See why I started with YOU first?
I am not going to attempt to address how much you should share about your personal business in order to be authentic. That would require an entire book series and perhaps not yield any solution. Now do you understand why I used the rubix cube picture for this discussion?
–Alesha Brown, The Joy Guru
Empowerment Coach, Motivational Speaker and Best Selling Author
CEO, Alesha Brown LLC
