What’s behind your mask? Check out a few tips to help you discover and accept your true self! [Fridays: Mindfulness by Miles]
Miles Everson’s Business Builder Daily speaks to the heart of what great marketers, business leaders, and other professionals need to succeed in advertising, communications, managing their investments, career strategy, and more.
A Note from Miles Everson:
Welcome to “Mindfulness by Miles!”
Every Friday, we write about a topic that I find useful in my everyday life. Our hope is that you’ll also be interested and compelled to apply these insights in your personal life and career.
In this article, we’re excited to share with you an interesting topic about self-acceptance.
Ready to know more self-help tips from today’s feature?
Continue reading below. We’re highlighting some of the factors and reasons that compel us to hide our true selves, and some ways to live life more authentically.
Miles Everson
CEO, MBO Partners
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute
Mindfulness by Miles
“Know thyself.”
In ancient Greece, the philosopher Socrates famously used this phrase to declare that the unexamined life is not worth living. For him, knowing oneself has extraordinary prestige in human culture.
Socrates also claimed that true wisdom is found in “knowing what you do not know.” This means an essential part of knowing yourself must be recognizing the limits of your own understanding.
Do you take time to know yourself?
While you may have heard the famous phrase many times now, you may still continue to underestimate the importance and benefits of what TRULY understanding yourself means.
Photo from Thrive Global
Miles Everson, CEO of MBO Partners, says for some, the answer to the question, “Who am I?” is significantly influenced by many outside sources. Unless you spend conscious, considerable time understanding who you are, you might end up not truly knowing the core of your being at all.
The truth is, you move through life crafting narratives of who you want to be or what you want to have. As a result, you create aspects of your identity that you either present to others or hide.
That’s why Everson personally makes sure he spends time assessing and reevaluating himself. He believes it’s important that he stays true to his core being so he can live life more happily and interact with others more positively.
Everson also recently read a blog written by Chenoa Maxwell, an emotional intelligence expert and founder of the Live Limitlessly hub. In that article, Maxwell discussed how to uncover what’s behind people’s masks so they could live freely and without fear of being judged or rejected.
In case you don’t know, Maxwell is one of the inspirational people who rose from the darkness of attempting suicide. Armed with a powerful testimony, she now has her own show on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Her show’s main theme?
Helping celebrities, Fortune 500 companies, and people all over the world live a limitless life!
Discovering AND Accepting Your True Self
Everson states most of the time, we create invisible masks to shield, protect, influence, or dictate how we want others to see us. As written in Paul Laurence Dubar’s poem, “We Wear The Mask:”
“We wear the mask that grins and lies,
it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.”
What does this imply?
Many of us create wonderfully ornate and decorative masks for ourselves. These masks become so elaborate and laborious that they eventually begin to dictate how we live our lives.
Everything is by design—who to befriend and love, what to consider as success, and how to describe beauty. The more elaborate the masks are, the more we hide our authentic selves.
… and the more we wear these masks, the more we lose sight of who we are and fail to understand what we’re actually feeling.
However, what happens if the mask chips, cracks, wears, or tears?
At this point, you’ll realize no matter how successful, how famous, how curated, and how fast and far you’ve come in life, your authentic self will manage to catch up to you… and eventually, the fissures in the mask will reveal what’s truly behind your facade.
Here’s the thing: Everson says people tend to wear their invisible masks when they live in fear or ideals, and when they don’t know or accept themselves as they are. So, knowing yourself requires being self-aware, matching who you actually are with who you say you are, and being aware of how you are feeling.
Everson states by being self-aware, you begin to understand and accept yourself instead of judging yourself. Additionally, when you know the core of your being authentically, you become empowered… and when you are empowered, you become stronger and more confident.
What are some ways to discover your true and authentic self?
Everson shares the top 3 tips he read in Maxwell’s blog:
- Have your personal “quiet time.”
Take a little time to be quiet and spend time with yourself. Go to a place where you can listen to your own thoughts, get in touch with your feelings, and know your core values and desires better.
This could also be done through meditation or journaling.
Once you’re more self-aware of why you’re putting on a mask and who you can let it down with, you’ll feel more free to be your authentic self.
- Ask questions about yourself.
Think about a time when you pretended to be someone else you’re not or when you hid your true feelings. Ask yourself:
“Why did I choose to hide a part of my identity?”
Answering this question will enable you to know and be your true self, and pay attention to the situations or circumstances under which you hide.
- Be brave and courageous.
Accepting and loving yourself authentically takes courage and bravery. This means living and operating from a place of strength and faith, not fear.
This is also about identifying what your life’s joy is, then living every day to move towards that joy, whether it is supported by others or not.
By living your life courageously and joyfully, you’ll be more comfortable showing who you truly are.
According to Maxwell in her blog, when you commit to the process of loving yourself and understanding that no one and nothing in the world can take your place, you’ll experience positive change from within.
She says this will give you the confidence to step into the extraordinary life you’re meant to live, be your best self, and live your best life.
—
Everson personally agrees with Maxwell’s stance. Self-love and self-acceptance are truly important. As the saying goes, “You cannot give what you don’t have.” This means if you don’t value yourself enough, it will manifest in how you live and view your life, and interact with others.
That’s why Everson always chooses to be in an attitude of thankfulness for who he is and what he has. He states adopting this mindset enables him to see the beauty of life and establish positive relationships with others.
He encourages you to adopt this perspective too! When you choose to show your true self and to remove your invisible mask, you’ll be amazed at how people will begin to show up differently for you and vice versa.
Your family and friends will begin to recognize and respect the place of strength and faith from which you operate, and you will move closer to a truly joyous and limitless life.
We hope you find today’s topic encouraging and helpful!
Remember: Accepting and loving yourself means taking loving action for yourself and your needs—emotionally, physically, spiritually, relationally, financially, and organizationally. By knowing this, you can live an authentic and fulfilling life—by yourself and with others.
(This article is from The Business Builder Daily, a newsletter by The I Institute in collaboration with MBO Partners.)
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Fridays: Mindfulness by Miles”
High-performance businesses are run by people who think and act differently.
In other words, these are people who are high-performing individuals.
Companies and individuals of this kind have found ways to escape the grind of commoditization and competition by focusing on the RIGHT goals.
High-performing businesses and individuals are also “return driven” businesses and “career driven” individuals. They conscientiously develop unique capabilities and resources that allow them to deliver offerings in ways no other firm or individual can.
Every Friday, we’ll publish tips and insights from MBO Partners and The I Institute’s “The Business Builder Daily” newsletter.
These will help you gain knowledge on the things that Miles Everson, the CEO of MBO Partners, often talks about regarding the future of the workforce.
We’ll also highlight other mindfulness advice on how you can be a high-performing individual both in your career and personal life.
Hope you’ve found this week’s insight interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Friday’s “Mindfulness by Miles!”
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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