Don’t Lose Yourself.

Is it just me or does it seem that to get ahead in this world, whatever that means, people tend to adopt a persona that does not reflect who they really are? In their normal day to day life, they will behave differently around family and friends as compared to when they are at work with colleagues. That is not a sustainable model for a happy life as you cannot carry around fakery for too long.

Fakery gets heavy on the body, soul, and heart. Each day you hold on to it, you get mired in the idea that to present a different self at work will help you get ahead. But in the end, you don’t get ahead. You fall further and further behind your destiny, your hopes, and your dreams. You lose yourself. You become something different.

None of us, when we went through college said to ourselves “When I get out, I want to work too many hours, nights and weekends as not to have a life”. “I want to sell out my sense of self and suck up to a boss who does not have my best interests at heart”. “I want to work for a company and invest my time in them just so they can down-size me when I need them the most”. But we do it anyway because society tells us that we only have value if we are productive for some company, who if when we leave, would fill our role in 30 days or less and never think twice about us again.

We lose ourselves in the actions of getting up, eating breakfast, taking a shower, and getting to work where we will spend 8 hours a day of our precious time only to repeat it again the next day in the hopes that we will get ahead. Whatever that means. Life becomes routine. In fact, we start thinking that this is how life really is.

We forgo our hopes and dreams like starting our own business and being our own boss. We put marriage on hold. We put having children on hold. We put being happy on hold. We get risk adverse and generally scared that the person who we REALLY are needs to be packed way and put on a shelf for a different version…a “corporate version” of ourselves.

We accept the stresses and pressures of life and work with the thought that once we get through it, then we can do those other things. Once we are financially settled or our careers are where we “think” that they should be, then that moment will be the correct moment to fulfill your hopes and dreams. What a stupid mentality.

Don’t wait! Do what makes you happy now. Surround yourself with people who are adventurous. Surround yourself with people who are good humans and good friends and who allow you to be yourself. There is an old saying that say “If you hang around with 5 alcoholics’ then you will become the sixth. If you hang around 5 millionaires, then you will become the sixth. If you hang around 5 happy and fulfilled people, then you will become the sixth”. Be of service to others.

Start that new business that you have always wanted to do. Keep close the people that can help you. Ask that person out who you have always wanted to. Believe in yourself. Don’t let your identity be dictated by your job. You have value already for just being a good human. Look in the mirror and if you do not see a person that you like then change it. Do you agree?