Stop being authentic

Per Seth, stop being authentic, start being considerate.

The authentic self is the lizard brain, the knee-jerk reaction. The authentic self is the mouth that gets me in trouble. The anger that explodes. 

The opposite of authentic isn’t inauthentic. It’s intentional. Thoughtful. Considerate. The pause button before the mouth gets us in trouble. The freedom from our emotions.

There’s no such thing as ‘be yourself’. That brand of authenticity is a false. The self doesn’t exist. We’re constantly different. When we’re energized after a good night’s sleep, versus the end of a double shift at work. It’s different when we’re a child eating cake at a grandparent’s house, versus an adult at the funeral of a friend.

It wouldn’t be appropriate to act the same or even consistently across every moment in life and time of day. 

Chasing an authentic self is chasing a box to pigeonhole into. 

Alternatively we can pursue intention. The intention of making moments matter. The intention of saying a kind thing to a shitty person, even when your authentic self wants to punch them. 

The considerate self chooses to work creatively when you just want to veg out and scroll through socials. 

The considerate self approaches each moment with the intention of making it count. If you want to veg out, the considerate self reminds you to enjoy the scrolling. If you want to create, the considerate self turns you away from distraction. If you want to know love, the considerate self doesn’t let a small misstep ruin a relationship.

Someone wise once said, there is stimulus and there is response, and in between that is freedom. The intentional self creates that moment of freedom between authenticity and action.