AUTHENTICITY IS YOUR EDGE!

According to Carnegie Institute of Technology, “85% of your financial success is due to skills in ‘human engineering,’ your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Shockingly, only 15% is due to technical knowledge.” In simple terms, your personality is your authenticity. When you operate in your authentic self, no one on planet earth can hold a match to you when you are fully aligned and fully connected.?

So, what exactly is authenticity? Psychologists Brian Goldman & Michael Kernis states, “it is the unimpeded operation of one’s true or core self in one’s daily enterprise”.

Essentially, authenticity at its core requires identifying, acknowledging and removing blind spots that hinder us from functioning with congruence. Fully understanding and embracing our authenticity is vital because our relationship with ourselves determine our relationship with everything else.

Perhaps at some point you've either heard or have been told, "just be authentic” but honestly, what does it really mean to live authentically? How do we find that place within ourselves? How do we know we are not being influenced by past messages and beliefs? When I find this authentic place, how can I stay there??

?In the book “How to Live an Awesome Life” by Polly Campbell, the word “authenticity,” as described almost 20 years ago by psychologists Brian Goldman and Michael Kernis, is “the unimpeded operation of one’s true or core self in one’s daily enterprise.”

What each of us must understand as we take this journey is your authentic self is there, it just needs to be awakened.?Being authentic means coming from a real place within yourself. It is when our actions and words are congruent with our beliefs and values. It is being ourselves, not an imitation of what we think we should be or have been told we should be.?

The authentic self is the you that is found at your absolute core. It is the part of you that isn’t defined by money, a job, a role, or a position. The authentic you, harmonizes with all of who you are, your unique gifts, skills, abilities, interests, talents, insights, and unique wisdom. However, the ability to lean into your authenticity requires us to be in tune with the aforementioned areas.

It is what I call the Process of Becoming.

The word "becoming" is a powerful word and carries with it tremendous clues to the journey we are all on toward reaching our potential. Interestingly, the word “becoming” has its origin in Old English as “be-cuuman” whose literal meaning is “to come into being!”?This means that the life and career changes we experience are often inevitable, but we can transform them into incubators which help us “come into being”.?

John Maxwell states, change is inevitable but growth is optional. Becoming therefore really is about the evolution of you, and involves a process and a commitment. However, "becoming" is also intricately tied together with "putting away” thoughts, behaviors and emotions that prohibit growth. Too often we assume we can achieve success or become our better selves without discarding the inhibitors of greatness.?

Another aspect of authenticity is integrity. Integrity deals with being consistent with actions, values and outcomes. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines integrity as “honesty and truthfulness or accuracy.” Integrity therefore is the opposite of hypocrisy and really speaks to us in regards of internal consistency being a virtue and a value. Integrity stems from the Latin word "integer" meaning whole and complete.

The Greek Essayist, Plutarch, was reported to have stated, “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”?If we are to live life from the inside out, then we must consider our integrity emanating from within us. Which brings us to an important question, what is internal integrity? Merriam Webster Dictionary defines internal as “something housed, situated or existing in the interior of something or someone.” It is essentially the inner part.?

Lacking authenticity therefore is expressing something different outwardly from who you are internally. Internal integrity is being internally and externally in harmony, undivided, and living honestly to what you value.

While we have convictions, beliefs and values, each time we compromise them to fit in or simply go along, we really are creating multiple versions of ourselves. These disjointed personas often?conveniently appear at different points in time. Once we decide to live an integral life, we no longer live a compartmentalized life.?

The idea of compartments implies there are multiple ones separate from one another. The word integral, which is the basis of integrity means complete, essential parts that make up a whole, and critically necessary. Living authentically means living an integral life and all your areas in life, e.g. family, friends, career, and spirituality, are connected to each other making up the whole of your life.?

Earlier I mentioned a data point from Carnegie School of Technology with respect to "human engineering" and its impact on "financial success." Ironically, there are real life examples we can look at to understand this fact. Listen to what media mogul Oprah Winfrey says about her own benefits of being authentic, “I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier.”

Four Reasons You Should Embrace You:

1. When you become who you were made you to be, you will be rich, not just in money, but possessing internal peace.
2. Authenticity produces boundless enthusiasm and the freedom to enjoy your existence.?
3. The beauty of living authentically is that doing so unlocks unseen resources that have been waiting for you to be aligned with yourself.
4. Your internal alignment and authentic self puts your life in play and leads to the pockets of suppressed energy being released.

I believe this is the life you were created to live and the who you were created to be.?

~Be Awesome

Dr. Kelvin McCree

To gain insights on how to develop your own authentic leadership presence and become more congruent with yourself, grab my book, Audacious Authenticity: Leading and Living With Congruency HERE