Being authentic is a process that, unfortunately, many of us avoid for several reasons:

1) Fear of vulnerability

Showing the world the real you can make you feel exposed, because it allows them to judge you. The truth is: people will judge you regardless and their perception of you will never be totally accurate. What matters most is that you know who you are and stay true to that no matter what.

2) Fear of accountability

Being authentic means radical honesty with yourself. It means calling yourself out for negative patterns and behaviours. This can make us feel exposed and affect our opinion of ourselves.

It is important that you create a safe space for yourself to analyse your behaviours and thoughts free from judgement. This can be the make or break of your journey. The less you judge yourself, the less you worry about the judgement of others.

3) Shame and guilt

Before making a conscious commitment to authenticity, a lot of us know deep down that we are not acting like our best selves. This underlying knowledge can deter us from trying to self-reflection in an effort to avoid those feelings of shame and guilt from flooding in.

This is why you must create that safe space for yourself and take your personal development one step at a time.

4) Fear of change

After learning more about yourself - everything good bad and quirky - you will inevitably find that you need to make improvements in some areas of your life.

This can be completely terrifying. After all, who will you be once you detach from those previous thoughts and habits that used to be a part of your everyday function?

Change is the only way to get better. You are a caterpillar waiting to turn into a beautiful butterfly. The only thing holding you back are the habits you know you need to change.

5) Trauma

Past experiences where being yourself didn't work out can cause you to hide in a shell of facade.

But know this: your authenticity didn't cause you to get hurt. It was someone else's inability to maturely handle your authenticity or it could have been your lack of boundaries. Either way, your authenticity was never the problem.

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