Authenticity is essential to fulfilling your destiny. If you aren’t being real with yourself, if you’re just living a facade, do you think you will ever truly reach your full potential?
It can be difficult to maintain authenticity and genuineness when you feel like you’re constantly under a microscope. In today’s society, nearly everything we do is accessible to the public. Even when we’re just typing a simple email it can feel like we are being thrown into the spotlight. Once you push send, you never know where what you’ve written could end up.
Some people are more careful than others when they feel like everybody is watching. Well-trained politicians and athletes respond shrewdly to on-camera questions, and they rarely say anything embarrassing or self-incriminating. They know how to manipulate the public eye.
Showing meticulous care to craft a favorable public identity is admirable to some extent, but if you aren’t genuine in your private life, you’re heading down a path of disaster. Nobody is perfect, but the more you surround yourself with people who care about you and are willing to help you stay true to yourself, the more you will be able to grow and increase your significance.
“Some things in life truly matter, and one is your character,” says Aaron Walker in his book View From the Top. He goes on to talk about his Eagles mastermind group and why its members decided to form an inner circle of men who aren’t afraid to hold each other accountable for their actions.
Proverbs 27:6 tells us that “Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.” Most people will tell you what they think you want to hear, rather than the truth. It’s important to have people in our lives who will always be truthful about the way they see us and honest about their perceptions of us based on what we project through our actions and words.
When you do something you aren’t proud of, it’s much easier to come to terms with it when you have people to discuss it with—close friends and advisors who can rally to your side and help you own your mistakes and grow past them. That’s why Aaron uses many of the pages in View From the Top to explain the significance of mastermind groups and give examples from his own life about dealing with uncomfortable situations.
What do you do when you say something you shouldn’t have said or committed an act that you aren’t proud of, but it feels like maybe you can deny it without getting caught? Do you sweep it under the rug and vehemently insist that it never happened, or do you own up to it and accept the consequences? Mark Twain wisely pointed out “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” Similarly, the wisdom in Bible verses such as Luke 8:17 “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open” and Luke 12:3 “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs” shows us that no matter how secretive we think we’re being, or how hard we try to cover up our dirty deeds, they always have the potential to be exposed to the world.
Being authentic is crucial to personal growth and professional success. No one likes a phony, and when you go the extra mile to be truthful and genuine, it will reap immeasurable rewards.
As Aaron says in View From the Top, “No matter how successful you become, you are only one false step, one hidden truth, or one questionable decision from ruining everything you’ve built. Check in with yourself right now and make sure you are where you need to be and who you need to be.”
Pre-order your copy of View From the Top today to learn more about how to give yourself a character check, measure your authenticity, and surround yourself with people who have your best interests at heart.
