ATV in Action

The Power of Authenticity

posted in: Inspiration | 0

ATV in ActionDo you like who you are? or do you hide who you are?

If you find that your internal conversation (what you say to yourself) and your external conversation (what you say to other people) are not the same.  If you find yourself considering how you appear more carefully than who you are or who you want to be.  If you don’t believe you will be accepted or approved unless you copy someone else or pretend to be something that you are not.  If you think that promotions only go to people who “play the game” and always say the right thing to the right people at the right time. If you find yourself plateauing or even declining in your career or topping out or failing in your relationships.  Or, if you simply feel conflicted about who you are becoming or the choices that you are making in certain situations that challenge you.

If any of these statements describe you, then the power of authenticity is calling you to unleash greater blessings, greater promotions, and greater abundance in your life.

The power of authenticity is that it gives you traction on being and changing who you are.

The power of authenticity is that it gives you insight into the reality of what you are capable of.

The power of authenticity is that it gives you a fundamental platform for connection, leadership, and influence with other people.

“That’s easy to say Steve, but that’s just not how the world works.  You haven’t met my boss!  You don’t understand how hard it is to pick up the phone one more time, or knock on one more door, or take one more client meeting when nothing is moving and no one is buying. You’ve got to be the person everyone else wants you to be to get ahead in this world. You’ve got to play the game!”

It may seem counter-intuitive, but the most successful people I know are those who understand “the game” and simply choose not to play.  They see the same situations, the same conflicts, the same aspirations, the same challenges.  They understand the players, the motivations, the skills, the preferences, the agendas, the abilities, and the values of everyone involved.  But rather than allowing themselves to become the victim of their circumstances, or defined by these external factors — authenticity opens the door for them to engage with people in a far more powerful and influential way.

If the phone calls, door knocks, client meetings, and more aren’t returning the result you are looking for, it may be that to get to the next level in your career or your relationships, you need to unlock the power of authenticity on your life.

Authenticity can’t be faked.  It can’t be put on or fabricated.  Either you have it, or you don’t.

Put more accurately, either you choose authenticity, or you don’t.

What I have found is that people respond to authenticity with authenticity in a kind of virtuous cycle.  You will discover things you never knew and uncover opportunities you never realized you had because when you are willing to step up your game, you inspire others to meet you at the same level.  You provide the security and the confidence to relate in a more meaningful way when you choose authenticity and that increase in the quality of your connections opens the doorway to a whole new level of success, fulfillment, and peace.

When you choose to clear away the distinction and bring your internal conversation into your external conversation.  When you choose to define who you are and who you want to be and allow how you appear to flow naturally from this identity.  When you choose confidence and integrity in place of trying to be someone you are not.  When you discover that leadership is not about “playing the game” but about genuinely connecting with the people around you.  When you realize that promotion and success are the secondary results of a primary focus on investing in the people within your reach.  And when you choose to become a person that you respect and love, a person who gives you confidence and clarity, a person who inspires and builds you up.  When you make the choice for authenticity, you make the choice to receive everything that God has in store for you in greater measure and experience the accomplishment of God’s promises for you more fully, deeply, and completely.

Authenticity is by its nature simple, but I’m not suggesting that authenticity is easy.  The transition from avoiding authenticity to enjoying authenticity can raise just about every negative emotion there is — fear and doubt, dread and anxiety, you name it.  Your mind can invent all kinds of reasons that avoiding authenticity seems likes the safer choice.

  • Authenticity can feel like vulnerability because authenticity increases intimacy.
  • Authenticity can feel like risk because authenticity reveals character.
  • Authenticity can feel like stress because authenticity empowers the people around you.
  • Authenticity can feel like uncertainty because authenticity inspires a response.

So, discard the first half of each of these statements.  Let go of the fear and doubt the enemy wants to sow in your life and see what authenticity actually has to offer.

  • Authenticity increases intimacy.
  • Authenticity reveals character.
  • Authenticity empowers the people around you.
  • Authenticity inspires a response.

When you choose to press through the negative emotions that the enemy wants to use to keep you from rising higher and achieving more, the results you will achieve will be authentically better!

The power of authenticity is rooted in the fact that it reveals who you are and so gives you the genuine choice of who you want to be.

You may be authentically bad, authentically dysfunctional, authentically immature, authentically broken, authentically sick, authentically unqualified, authentically lost — but all of that just adds up to one thing, you are authentically in need of salvation.

And the power of authenticity is that when you can authentically embrace your need for salvation, salvation is authentically ready and waiting in the person of Jesus Christ.

When you can be honest with yourself and make the choice for a better life.  When you genuinely desire to leave your bad, dysfunctional, immature, broken, sinful, and sick decisions and experiences behind, then you are authentically ready for the new life that Jesus is offering you right now — a life full of peace, joy, confidence, health, strength, vision, grace, success, accomplishment, abundance, and all manner of blessings.

You may not like who you authentically are today, but God is ready to make a change whenever you are.  So stop waiting for a change to happen to you, stop standing in fear on the far side of authenticity.  Get going, and see what God has in store for you.

God is excited to work with you — to promote you, develop you, mentor and coach you, empower you, and bless you in ways that you haven’t even imagined, and it all starts with authenticity.

Authenticity is like a great set of tires, it gives you traction on what moves you and the ability to turn your life around when you need it, because authenticity is the foundation and the start of every actual relationship with God.

So, don’t pay attention to the lies the enemy wants to tell you about the dangers of authenticity.  Let go of the negative emotions that the enemy wants to inspire to keep you from pursuing your destiny.  And make the choice to embrace the power of authenticity and the genuine relationship with God that it unlocks, starting today.

 

Follow Steve Simons:

Bible Believing Follower of Jesus Christ. Preacher. Conservative. Republican. NRA Member. Chevy Truck Guy. "God's Answers Are Always Simple. God's Answers Always Work." #GraceRevolutionGeneration #IAmNotAfraid

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