“To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
Read it again.
Memorize it, and repeat it to yourself, and never forget it.
Being yourself, scratch that. Being true to your real self is going to be one of the hardest things you’ll ever encounter in your life.
The quote I started with wasn’t written by me, it was written by the brilliant poet E.E. Cummings.
To some this quote might seem unreasonable, and the truth is, that it is.
Why is it unreasonable?
Because it’s dangerous.
It’s filled with all the perils, the consequences, of being yourself.
But at its core, it boils down to, what will they think of me? And although some of this is tied to emotion, a great portion is directly associated with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The core need for love and belonging drives many to mask who they really are in order to achieve social acceptance.
The awful irony is that when elderly are asked to list their lessons and regrets from their lives, one of their top regrets is that they wish they had been brave enough to have expressed their true selves. And that’s why you’ll often hear that old people don’t have filters. It’s because they’ve realized that their time is limited, and so they’re going to act, say and do whatever they want to.
Now, I’m not suggesting you don’t take other people’s feelings in to account or condoning behavior that’s damaging to you or society. What I am suggesting is that you really starts asking yourself, who you are and what do you want?
Do it now and do it often.
Look, you’re always going to encounter people that don’t agree with you, but the more you’re aligned with yourself, the more you’ll attract people that resonate with you. It might be difficult at first, but that’s the continuous battle.
Start now. Don’t wait to be the old person with regrets and without a filter.
P.S. Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it please share it with one person you love.