Secret #1--Be True to Yourself

Have the discipline to listen to your heart, and then have the courage to follow.”
Ron Polack

Recently I posted a blog about the book The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die by John Izzo and for the next couple of days I’m going to expound on each secret as I believe they are important to helping us live fulfilled and satisfying lives. Our time in life is limited so we must use it wisely.

To me, nothing is more disheartening and tragic than hearing that someone died with regrets and sadness; although this is the case it seems in many, many instances. In order to avoid this trend, I will review the five secrets that will help us live life to its fullest.

Secret number one in John Izzo’s book is Be True to Yourself. To do this, we must know ourselves inside and out. We must determine what really matters to us and follow our hearts. We must discover the person we want to be and then work towards becoming that person.

To discover ourselves we must take serious time to think and reflect. Find some alone time in your day where you can contemplate what matters most to you and how you can accomplish it. Personality tests such as Myer-Briggs can also aid you in knowing your true self better.

It takes courage and confidence to truly be true to yourself, because you may discover you are on the wrong path causing the need to make major changes in your life. Also being true to yourself may not be popular or received well by others. However, having the confidence to follow your heart will bring about deep personal satisfaction. Being true to yourself is having the valor to follow your self-chosen destiny.

Some questions to help you determine if you are being true to yourself include:

Am I happy doing what I’m doing right now?

Am I being the kind of person I want to be?

Is my life focused on things that really matter?

Often, the outside world will influence us to be less than we can be. The media, television, and internet will cloud our vision and influence us to not be true to ourselves. Learning to overcome these outside influences and really spend time contemplating about our true selves will put us on the right track. So, push out outside influences and start being true to yourself today!