11 Sep The Top 10 Validations that you are Living an Authentic Life

A Life in Balance with Values

It is about balance.  Balance among and between all things: your values, beliefs and actions you take consistently.  It is that natural place between the outside world and your inside world.  Your innermost core of being clearly and consistently reflects a seamless melding with your actions towards yourself and others in a balanced way.  We work our entire lives to find this alignment, much as a solar eclipse finds it’s perfect place with the moon.  And as with the solar eclipse, this effect is rare and fleeting.

I suspect you may be thinking “yes, but how can that happen?”  It is hard enough to hold it together, what with all the daily pressures of family, career, social turmoil and the like.  How can I possibly possess the skills and tools that would be required to achieve such a state?  Besides, people who seem so blissed-out are a little off-putting.  I might not be insightful enough for this stuff anyway.  

If these thoughts come to you, then you are good candidate for setting up some goals to improve your perspective.  I’ll let you in on something, it is really not so mystical if you begin one step at a time and move forward at a pace that makes sense for you.  Consider my list of the Top Twelve Ways to Know if You are Living Authentically:

• You are engaged in working on yourself to understand your own sh*t.  You have done it consistently or you are in the process and you take it seriously.
• You are truly aware of your foibles, pains, strengths, weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and capabilities, and by so knowing you can be more honest with yourself and others
• You stop to think and reflect upon that which is important to yourself, and you use these reflections to reassess and reconfigure your thoughts and behaviors as needed.
• You find opportunities to engage with others who also place an emphasis on self-knowledge and who are on a similar proactive path
• You value a work and career path that holds a significant resonance for you, and you strive to follow this path whenever possible
• You make it a practice to surround yourself and spend your time with others who value authenticity.
• You agree or disagree with ideas and speak plainly about them, never agreeing or disagreeing when you really don’t mean it.
• You understand that you are a constantly changing and evolving being, and you practice the process of becoming by striving to be self-aware.
• You refuse to hurt others by “calling it the way you see it” simply because you feel you are being honest, preferring to be kind because you recognize others might not be where you are at in terms of growth or understanding.
• You are willing to be accountable for your errors and departures from your values, and you are willing to admit when you blew it.
• You manage and deal with any shame you may carry and refuse to be held hostage to it.
• You seek to keep an open, pensive and curious  approach to all that comes before you.

As we move forward in life, despite all the challenges and ups and downs, we maintain an honest approach to the good, the bad and the ugly.  We maintain a flow and synergy of our learnings, and where possible, we share with others so they may also be touched by your presence.