Sage: Please DON'T Just "Be Yourself "

Performance Artist Stephen Hues

A lot of people urge us to just "be yourself", but I don't think this vague advice is very helpful. 

Firstly, I don't want other people to always just be themselves, because too many people are assholes. 

I'd rather them not be themselves, and try being someone who is polite, who listens to other people, and who thinks before they talk. A lot of people don't do that.

Secondly, if I don't like things about who I am, then I don't really want to be me. 

I'd rather pretend to be someone who everyone is going to like a bit more than the real me, because the real me might be thinking about what an asshole everybody else is.

It is more helpful to tell people, "Be the authentic you," or , "Don't be your ego." 

Because the majority of people think that they are their egos, when they are not. 

The ego is the bitch part of us that gets offended by things.

 That needs to win. 

To be right. 

To be superior. 

That is attached to outcomes and expectations. 

That needs recognition. 

The authentic self is strong and flexible, allowing life to flow through itself, and happen. 

It accepts the shit life occasionally puts on our plate impersonally, knowing that occasionally, shit is going to happen no matter what we may think or do.

It takes responsibility for its character flaws and strives to overcome them--even if it means pretending to be a better person---in order to become one.

"The authentic self is the best part of a human being. It's the part of you that already cares, that is already passionate about evolution. When your authentic self miraculously awakens and becomes stronger than your ego, then you will truly begin to make a difference in this world. You will literally enter into a partnership with the creative principle."

~Andrew Cohen~

"Most people are so stuck in their egos that everything revolves around me, me, and more me. But if you want to be rich in the truest sense of the word, it can’t only be about you. It has to include adding value to other people’s lives."

~T. Harv Eker~








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