I loved having original thoughts. My own authentic voice used to be easy to tap into. Over time, I’ve let outside opinions and my desire to confirm and make others happy reduce my authentic voice to a small whisper.
Get to know your Authentic Voice. This doesn’t sound that hard, but it is. It takes some serious reflection to sift through the webs of other people’s thoughts and opinions and figure out who the real you actually is. waitbutwhy.com
Source: A successful life depends on following your instincts over your primal need to fit in – Quartz
It is hard. Sitting down and actually writing down what I think seems like overkill. “Why do you have to remind yourself what you think? Just be yourself” people say. Awesome. Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, I’ve created a large Social Survival Mammoth that sits on my brain and advises conformity, safety in same-ness and lets-pull-down-the-one-outside-the-group behavior.
[Authentic Voices] are interesting. [Social Survival Mammoth] are boring. Every AV is unique and complex, which is inherently interesting. Mammoths are all the same—they copy and conform, and their motives aren’t based on anything authentic or real, just on doing what they think they’re supposed to do. That’s supremely boring.
When I’m at a party, I used to have lots of opinions and things to say. Lately, naw, I’m good. I’ll chill and watch other people talk. When I was younger, I had a mostly Authentic Voice. Others loved it and asked for it. They listened and turned back to me to hear my opinion. Once in a while, those in the mob mentality (too scared to have their own Authentic Voice, or perhaps acting authentically- I’ll never know) would command me to perform, or try to pull me down.
Hey you, person with an opinion who acts authentically! You are different, separate and apart from the larger group.
How do I challenge that? Shrug it off. Keep enjoying the authenticity I live in.
When I started the Beginner Podcast Mistakes podcast, I was so excited to share the mistakes I made. I wanted to help other people start sharing their opinions and ideas. Now I realize so many of these other people seem to also have a huge Social Survival Mammoth, too. They share and speak the same things over and over- knocking each other “back in line”. Eventually, we end up with an overall mish-mash of generally accepted opinions.
It must be hard to be an artist- visually seeing representations of other people’s ideas. How can I design something from my authentic voice, when I’ve curated, tagged sorted and favorited Pintrest boards from other people’s ideas?
As the author said, “it takes some serious reflection”.
Agreed.