How many times have you seen an advertisement for a product or service that will help you find “the new you”? As I’ve been focused on authenticity this year, several have caught my eye. Here’s a sampling:
- A quick Google search returns multiple iterations of New You salons offering a new hair style, new nails, and new makeup that will somehow create a new you.
- Weightwatchers.com includes this section titled “New Year, Brand New You!” with a collection of articles focused on healthy eating and exercise.
- PsychologyToday.com offers a blog titled “The New You,” finding the motivation to change. The summary statement claims it will provide resources to help you achieve meaningful change.
Instead, what I challenge us to think about is this:
What if the new you is as simple (but not easy) as knowing your real self?
The philosopher Sartre taught (see below) that as we travel our human journey, we are continually making life choices that determine who we are and how we show up each day. We face a circumstance and make a choice how to respond. That choice leads to actions we take and results we need to own. Acknowledging the responsibility for our life choices and our actions is a requirement of authenticity.
Instead of seeking the new you from external sources, look deeply within. Who are you? Who do you want to be? How do your choices reflect that? How do your actions reflect your choices? If you’re not happy with the answers, take time to ponder who the real you really is. How can you move forward confidently as that being?
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For further reflection, here is the above referenced quote about Sartre from The Limits of Authenticity as published on philosophynow.org. I encourage you to follow the link and read the full article by Ben G. Yacobi, exploring “if it is possible to live authentically.”
Another existentialist, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80), argued that there is no unchanging essence to the self, but we have a free will that allows us complete freedom to determine our lives from the choices available. According to Sartre, existence precedes essence: in other words, the human being first comes into existence and then continually defines oneself, rather than coming into being with an already given nature. So for Sartre, authenticity requires taking full responsibility for our life, choices and actions.
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Photo credit: My 2017 One Word bracelet by El Biddulph, ordered from MyIntent.org and worn everyday as a reminder of my journey toward living in authenticity.
