Be authentic. If you have to ask how to be authentic, you aren’t doing it right.
*gleep* This is horrible! I don’t know how to be authentic! I mean, is authentic when you are who you are, even when you’re hanging out with your closest friend, telling dirty jokes and swearing every second word, even if you’re never like that with anyone else? Or is authentic when you are your work self, joking and mostly confident because you’re comfortable, even though when you encounter someone new in a business setting you grow a second tongue and generally act like you’ve never had a business meeting before in your life?
Or is being authentic admitting when you don’t know the answer, even though admitting it will make you feel the fool? And maybe authentic is sending along a picture of Hello Kitty merchandise because you love it, and your friends know you love it, and you want to share it with them even though you know they’ll roll their eyes at you (and keep loving you anyway).
The quality of being genuine or not corrupted from the original.
You are the origional. There is only one of you. If you are pretending to be someone else, even a little bit, you are not being genuine or authentic. This is not the same, though, as aspiring to be like someone you admire. I can think of a half dozen people right away who I would like to be like. There are characteristics that I greatly admire in these people, and I strive to adapt some of these characteristics myself.
So come on with me (a la High School Cheerleaders): Be! *clap* Authentic! *clap* Be! Be! *clap* Authentic!