The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

6

“When there are no enemies within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.”

There is nothing as gratifying as living a life where you are you. Because you can’t be who you’re not.

The Bhagavad Gita, the sacred Hindu text, says it’s better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection. Pretending to be Better You instead of Normal You means spending energy focusing on this person and then acting them into existence. How exhausting! If you were a computer, this would be spending brainpower to flash a beautiful screen saver at everyone walking by. It takes time and energy. And goes against your natural desires and dreams. It’s also impossible to thoughtfully do both at the same time. Don’t get us started on multitasking, right?

It’s hard meeting people willing to share their authentic selves when you first meet them. Chris Rock said, “When you meet somebody for the first time, you’re not meeting them. You’re meeting their representative!”

But unless that relationship lasts only a few moments, there’s so much value in sharing your whole self right away. I say share your deeply authentic self far and wide. Be weird and be random. Be you and be cool with it.

Do you think it’s hard to do this? If you do, you’re right. It is very hard.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry says, “How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people. What is true is invisible to the eye. It is only with the heart that one can see clearly.”

Chuck Klosterman says, “I honestly believe that people of my generation despise authenticity, mostly because they’re all so envious of it.”

Herman Hesse writes in Siddhartha, “What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.”

But if you find it, if you discover and share your authentic self, it has the biggest payoff of all.

Eckhart Tolle says, “Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free.”

An ancient African proverb says, “When there are no enemies within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.”

Shakespeare writes, “This above all: To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

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Remember the Confidence Box. You can’t be yourself until you hold a high opinion of yourself and others. Remember the Three Simple Tests: The Saturday Morning Test, The Bench Test, The Five People Test. They will point you the right way.

What happens if you don’t share your true self with the world?

Well, then you may never truly know who might love the person you hide.

Be you.