How to Live a Radically Authentic Life Part 2
Lisa J. Wilson
Art Biz for Creative Thinkers ?? Guiding Creatives to Thrive in Business while Healing the Starving Artist Mindset
Living Radically Authentic 2020 is just up for me this year. It's going to be up for me for the rest of my life, living a radically authentic life.
I'm going to share some stories about what that really means. Because we have been conditioned to operate under false masks, whether it be in our awareness or in the subconscious programming from society and family structures, people-pleasing, little girls should be nice and not rock the boat.
There are all kinds of stereotypical behavior that we have been conditioned to operate under based on what we've been brought up to believe. And wow! Wow! Wow! All it does is it takes us further from ourselves.
Last year, I went to a wonderful symposium, and I was in the process at the time. It was a beautiful journey actually. I had been hired to create programs for this huge corporation, a big Fortune 500 company.
At the time, I was really diving in deep with working with my clients and on the global platform, talking about what it means to be in toxic relationships and narcissistic abuse, and sharing stories of that nature. Here I am, creating programs for this company that are just not congruent with the work of where I was at.
So, based on my conditioning and how we negotiate and reason with ourselves, I kept telling myself—because I could easily create those programs, that's not a big deal for me. But was my heart in it?
This became a really significant lesson and journey for me with so many great rewards that I just want to share this story.
My business mentor said to me at the time, “Wilson, I'm just wondering why you're talking basketball to a bunch of farmers?” That was how he phrased it.
I sat there hearing him so clearly. And yet the negotiation that I was having with myself, I was unable to sit there and actually really own that story. My work is really deep in soul and core, and I'm kind of creating some programs that are light and fluffy, and just not congruent with the work I was doing at the time.
So I was like, “Yeah, but... Yeah, but…” Right? “Yes, but I'm a single mom.” Here comes the negotiation. “I need to generate an income to provide for my son and I. I could use this program later, and there are going to be many gifts that I could use in this situation.”
Anyway, there was a series of events that took place. I was getting ready to leave to go to the symposium in Phoenix, Celebrate Your Life, where these incredible women were getting up on stage.
I had let this company know that I was actually going to be out of town, and not only just out of town, but I was also off the grid. I was unavailable because I was fully immersed in this program, and I didn't want to be interrupted.
And they started blowing up my phone. Like, “We're God's gift to you, and you need to stop everything you're doing and cater to us because there's a lot of money riding on this.”
This is how this interaction started to happen. So I just watched my phone just blow up. I mean, it was, “You need to get us this in the bio, and we need this, and we need that.” It started to take on its own life.
I knew in my heart that I was not congruent with this program, yet I still had this lack and limitation belief system, which is what it was—that there's not enough. I have to say “yes” to situations that are not a "hell yes" because of the money or whatever it was I was receiving from it.
This is how we have been taught to live in this life. We have to do things that might not be exactly what we want, but ultimately, it's going to get us where we want to be.
Yet, what happens when we do that is we schism, we fracture. There is a shift that takes place where you separate from yourself. Yourself from yourself. And self-love and living radically authentic are all about trusting in yourself. “Am I making decisions that really honor who I am?” “Am I trusting in the Divine that I am?”
So, I'm just in awe because it's like a hurricane and it's just spinning out. And I'm just watching how this company operates, and they do it with all their employees.
The topic for me to work on was "Why is corporate America so stressed out? What can we do to shift it?" So this is the program that I'm creating, and yet they are the reason why their staff is all stressed out, and there's no balance in it, which was so interesting.
Because they have this high society client base, you should sell your soul for it. And everybody's jumping through these hoops, and they're trying to get me to jump, and they're getting pissed off that I'm not jumping.
I finally just shut my phone off and thought either you'll be there when I get out of this program or you won't.
So, I go into this group with all these fabulous women, and one story after another, three days of listening to badass women speaking about living radically authentic, calling themselves out on stage for behavior that they've operated in and showed up in.
One woman, Zainab Salbi, she was just so incredible, and she sat there saying, “I'm getting this achievement award for being a woman's right advocate, and yet I feel like I am just full of shit. I'm only speaking on behalf of women who have really been through some hard stuff. What have I done?”
If this is how she's coming on stage and having this conversation, then every cell of my being just lit up—boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I thought, “Now, this is my tribe. These are my ladies. Absolutely.”
I made it a commitment to myself at that moment, in that program that I was going to show up radically authentic, no matter how uncomfortable it gets. So I left there just really in a whole different place than when I arrived. That was for sure.
I entered back into my reality and started to create this program that was launching for this big group, and I just couldn't do it. I couldn't even take another step forward. I called the person and said, “I'm not the person for this.” And I gave them recommendations or whatever, but I said, “This is just not a congruent fit with the truth of who I am.” What ended up happening was the magic that I really want to share.
There was a part of me that could trust me. This is what happens when we live radically authentic. When we say “yes,” when it's a “yes.” When we say “no,” when it's a “no.” When we have the hard conversations because they need to be had, and we're not running from them. We're not avoiding them. We're showing up radically authentic no matter how that looks.
That might be, “This is how I'm feeling.” This is the conversation that you can have. “This is what's up for me, and maybe you and I can have a conversation to see if we could shift what's happening here to make it something other, more congruent with the truth of me. And if not, then maybe it's time for us to part ways.”
So, I say that because sometimes when the pendulum starts swinging, we start seeing what we've been saying “yes” to, it's easy to go the opposite direction and start saying “no” to everything. And then the pendulum has to find its middle ground.
Either way, it's always the right thing at the right time. It serves either way, no matter where you are in your journey. It's just, we're shining a light on what does it mean to live radically authentic and getting really comfortable with understanding who we are.
What are we saying “yes” to? And what do you want to say “no” to? Is it congruent? Are you doing it out of obligation? Are you doing it out of fear? Or are you doing it out of some form of survival safety?
Because we're in a totally different place right now on this earth where we're living from the Divine feminine energy. That is not to say that this is a female journey only. This is to say that we are all coming into the balance of the Divine masculine and the Divine feminine that resides within each one of us. And we are releasing the distortion of the false illusions of fear, lack, and limitation.
You are so much bigger than you even could possibly imagine. But it starts with owning your truth and starting to look at the ways that you manipulate, the ways that you show up in the world saying “yes” or people-pleasing because you're looking to get an outcome because there's an expectation.
Manipulation can also take on a whole other form when it comes from that really distorted place as well—from the shadow where it's cunning and calculated.
So check in with yourself. How are you operating in the world? And why are you doing it? Because that's where the gold lives.
When you start really claiming your power, speaking your truth, and stepping into living a radically authentic life, the world around you will shift and you'll end up creating the most harmonious, wonderful relationships you've ever had. Then your life unfolds in magical ways that you couldn't have possibly imagined. It's an inside job. It doesn't exist outside of you.
For more information, go to my website at www.radicallyauthenticyou.com. I have so many wonderful processes and programs. If this video has supported you or helped you in any way, please like, share, and subscribe.
This is the way we get this information out there. So together we are better. We are living a congruent and joyful life, co-creating with one another and within the truth of who we are. It's a wonderful process.