I attended a management workshop recently where the speaker spoke at some length about how we should all honor our ‘authentic self’ and bring it to work each day.
She described how she was stuck in a dead-end job, trapped in a loveless marriage and scared of doing what she loved. She was depressed.
She discovered her authentic self and, a mere five years later, here she was speaking to this wonderful audience, living her dream life! Along the way she had shed her husband and lost weight.
She exhorted everyone to do likewise. She granted that it would be difficult to do it right away and advised attendees to be 2% more ‘authentic’ every day.
I would have laughed if not for how seriously some people took her. They actually discussed, seriously, how to ‘discover’ their ‘authentic self’ and how to ‘step into’ it.
You have no ‘authentic self.’ You are a creature of whims and have many selves. All of them are ephemeral. All of them are false.
One day you see a homeless person on the street and are moved by compassion. How sad that this person should be reduced to such circumstances. You drop a twenty-dollar bill into his cup and move on filled with compassion.
The very next day you are grappling with a sudden work problem and stumble on the same homeless person at the same spot. You become annoyed and wish that he would go and be homeless somewhere else – preferably miles away.
Which is your ‘authentic self’? Which should you step into? Which should you bring to work?
I have written about this in an earlier blog.
It was true then. It is true now.
Peace!
