As you embrace being, doing, and saying what comes naturally to you must also embrace accountability. Without both you can’t be truly authentic. Here is why authenticity requires accountability.
Inauthenticity And Shame
Shame is a powerful emotion that can rob you of your joy. By living in your truth you shed light on your dark areas, and as Brené Brown so eloquently states in her work shame can’t live in darkness. This doesn’t mean that you need to overshare with people who haven’t earned the right to hear your story, but that you stop hiding your truth from those who have.
Compassion Will Arise
While sharing your truth will feel uncomfortable the goal is to stop living in fear of people finding out. Most of the things you have to share are things others have struggled with too so you are likely to be met with great compassion. However, somethings need to be shared with more than just truth but also accountability.
Accountability Is Required
We all make mistakes and in our sharing of the areas of opportunity in both our past and our present, we must accept our role in where things went wrong. In some cases, we had no role such as the shame we feel for growing up in a dysfunctional family. That is not something that requires ownership. But when we got it wrong or as we continue to get it wrong we must own when we missed the mark—no cop-outs.
Here is to being authentically you!
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