One of the many introspective discoveries I’ve made recently is how absolutely fake I can be. The plain and simple truth is that I’m much more likely to hide my true feelings rather than be real about them.

Why would I do this?

To avoid embarrassment, conflict, hurt feelings, or any other number of what I would call negative outcomes. Am I in such a dire need to control the outcome that I would rather be deceptive than express myself honestly?

I heard an incredible interview on NPR this afternoon with author Barbara Ehrenreich who, when diagnosed with breast cancer, was bombarded with advice on being optimistic. What she soon realized was that this false optimism was not positively affecting her outlook. In fact, it was making it worse. She was not expressing her true feelings about her illness.

In her new book, Bright-sided (Amazon Link), Ehrenreich talks about some of the negative effects of positive thinking and how America has been undermined by what she calls “reckless optimism”.

She’s not saying dwell on the negative or to ignore the positive. What she is saying is simple: Be real. Allow your true feelings in that moment to be expressed. It’s healthy and it’s normal. I haven’t read her book yet, but I plan to soon. You can read an excerpt from Bright-sided here.

Look inward and ask yourself, “Am I being authentic?” What’s your answer?

I’m working on becoming a more authentic person and I hope you feel compelled to do the same. In the coming weeks I’ll be touching on this topic some more and will sharing the tools and material that have been helping me.

Are you interested in getting real?

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