Masterful Mindsets ~ Be free to be yourself…
“The freedom to be yourself is a gift only you can give yourself. But once you do, no one can take it away.” ~ Doe Zantamata
Question:
How free are you to be yourself? In everything you do and all your interactions with others, are you being your true self? If not, why? What needs to change so you can feel free to be yourself everywhere you go and in all that you do?
Action Challenge:
Last week was 4th of July in the USA, a time to celebrate our freedom. But for many people, they feel most captive, within. They don’t feel they have the freedom to be themselves and they blame others for that lack of freedom. (Maybe you can relate.) But the truth is, it’s more likely that you don’t like who you are so you believe others won’t like or accept you either. So, you put on a mask and pretend to be someone you are not.
We may not always show up as our best self, even though we’d like to, we all have bad days. But for most people, who we are at the core – our character, is good. And if you don’t have character traits you love, that just means it’s time to work on them. That’s what we’ve been talking about the last few weeks. How can you adjust, shift or change those character traits that don’t serve you to be your best?
Maybe you need to start by being brave. Maybe you need to be courageous. Maybe you need to believe in yourself. And trust that who you are is enough.
If you are someone that believes you don’t have the freedom to be yourself, then I would challenge you to really think about this because odds are, you are the one not giving yourself the freedom to be yourself. You may have limiting beliefs that you are not enough or that who you are isn’t good enough. So, you believe you have to pretend to be someone you’re not.
Pretending to be something (say confident or brave – aka “fake it till you make it”) isn’t always bad. It’s actually one way to push yourself forward into creating a desired change. (We’ll talk more about that next week.) But if you’re denying your true character to shine through it’s time you give yourself the freedom to be you.
Think about this… maybe you aren’t overly confident or you don’t fully believe you have what it takes to achieve a goal, but you fake it and push yourself to act confidently, be outgoing or speak words of success. That’s good because it will help you take actions towards who you want to be. However, if you stay stuck in the belief that you are not good enough for yourself or for others, you will hold yourself back from allowing yourself to have the freedom to be your best self and you will struggle to reach your goals. So if you get anything out of today’s video, I want you to hear this: YOU ARE ENOUGH!
My challenge to you is to give yourself the freedom to be yourself. Be yourself around others – everywhere you go and in all you do. Believe you are enough. Put yourself out there. Be vulnerable, be real, be brave and be yourself.
***I want to hear from you… Share your comments below.