Authenticity : Proactive and Practical Path to Contentment

Authenticity : Owning and acting in accordance with your true self. 

Authenticity is a buzz word in today’s leading edge circles. 

When I gave a speech in Mountain View, CA on the topic, the room was jam packed wall to wall and people were standing.

Our culture craves authenticity.

The reason you crave authenticity is because there is so much in-authenticity in our daily lives.

And in yourself.

Most people are still seeking the answer to life’s big question:

Who am I?

You fight this question all day every day.

Problems leading to in-authenticity and discontent include: 

1) Listening to others beyond yourself.

2) Being to busy to make time to self reflect.

3) Being out of touch with the voice inside.

4) Encountering 48 barriers to authenticity

You are told who we are and who you ought to be by our job, family, culture, religion, and education.

You have lost touch with the seed of your own soul’s voice because you focus on the external world so much and pleasing those around you.

As you are externally driven in your achievements, your driving, your eating, your job, and with your family, this leaves little room for self exploration.

Self reflection and introspection are imperative to your heart’s deepest levels of contentment.

Beyond the focus of whatever is going on outside of yourself, you have an absent mindedness where 47% of the time you are thinking of something that isn’t really going on.

If you are listening to others over yourself, if you are never allotting time for your own self reflection, you probably are also out of touch with your own inner voice.

There is a difference from the truth in our mind versus the truth in your heart. The truth in your mind is convoluted with your subconscious belief system and your conscious struggle in achievement and pursuit of inner peace. 

This voice in your heart is where your secret to contentment lies.

Your mind is to smart and will justify things are the way they are or how they should be. 

Your heart simply knows your soul’s truth.

When asked the right questions within the right process, contentment is possible as a real sustainable result.

When you have contentment in your heart, you feel a bold fulfillment in your heart’s center that is ever present, opposite of an empty feeling inside, separate from your emotional state.  

Peace of mind is possible at this point, making the mind a tranquil pond.

Beyond asking the right questions and following the right process, you have to allow empowerment, positive mood and resiliency to be your focus before you are truly able to reach the depths of your contentment.

The depths and breath of the complexity of authenticity are beyond most peoples understanding of the topic. 

Seems simple, right? Just be yourself.

Who knew there were 48 barriers you would potentially have to get though to be totally authentic.

Knowing the answer to Who Am, I then being able to achieve relational transparency is the next step.

Authenticity is owning and acting in accordance with your true self.

Owning your true self takes time. Acting as your true self also takes time.

Not only does it take time, it takes persistence, diligence, acceptance and confidence to overcome any of 48 barriers to authenticity.

I had a 3 month leadership experience in graduate school where I ‘tested’ my authentic leadership and discovered I encountered 30 of the 48 barriers that can steer us toward inauthenticity.

After so much attention and the belief I was being authentic, it was a hard awakening to see the stark difference between what I am saying and what I am thinking and feeling inside.

This led me to a gigantic leap in my self awareness, personal authenticity and gave me true insight on how I was relating with the people I was leading.

The path of authenticity is a spectrum. It is situational. It is developmental and ever evolving. 

As the development of contentment takes time and effort, once achieved, it is like surfing the best wave life has to offer.

As we all are on the path of self actualization, we need to allow our authenticity to unfold naturally, with conscious awareness, acceptance and confidence. You must spend time with yourself asking the deeper questions and being true to yourself ir-regardless of the barriers we constantly face to develop our truest and deepest heart’s contentment.

Contentment as a form of sustainable happiness.

Authenticity as a construct of Contentment.

21 steps to reach eudaimonia or sustainable contentment.

I am offering a Proactive and Practical Path to Contentment.

This is a partial illumination of step four of Contentment in the five steps of sustainable happiness. 

* Note * For more information on my dissertation research: Toward authentic leadership crisis prevention: identification of barriers to relational authenticity in self-awareness.

For more information visit www.happinessforhumankind.com