by Anja Uitdehaag

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life and don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. Most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” – Steve Jobs

There are over seven billion people on this earth. No two people are truly alike. No two people can ever have the same experience of life, the same perspective, the same mind. Even identical twins are different.

Our differences make us unique and stamp us with our own identity. We are all exceptional in our own way. We all have a valuable contribution to make. The phrase “finding myself” gets over 5 million searches per month in Google. That shows how common it is for people to feel disconnected from their true self.

“True self” for me means being honest and genuine. It means stop pretending to be somebody I am not, putting on a show and trying to fit in. It also means deciding what I really want from life, standing up for what I believe in, and following my own value system and common sense. Only by being true to myself I can shape my own purpose in life.

Anna Quindlen describes it very well in her book “Being Perfect”:

“Nothing important, or meaningful, or beautiful, or interesting, or great, ever came out of imitations. What is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself. More difficult because there is no zeitgeist to read, no template to follow, no mask to wear. Terrifying, actually, because it requires you to set aside what your friends expect, what your family and your co-workers demand, what your acquaintances require, to set aside the messages this culture sends, through its advertising, its entertainment, its disdain, and its disapproval, about how you should behave.”

To be true to yourself takes courage. It requires you to be introspective, sincere, open-minded and fair. It also requires you to take the risk of learning something about yourself as well as to take responsibility for yourself.

This is your life. Embrace and live it!