Live and authentic life
Stress for Success
January 20, 2009

Authentic: genuine, real, valid, bona fide

Living an authentic life, one that' s consistent with what you value and who you genuinely are, leads to a much more meaningful life that’s less stressful and can help you through today’s challenges.

The opposite of authentic is fake (counterfeit, forged, phony). Living a counterfeit life leads to an underlying discomfort in all that you do that feels phony to you. For example, an honest person who sells a product she believes is faulty would be stressed. Her mental health would improve significantly if she found employment that honored her values.

"Authenticity is a cornerstone of mental health and is correlated with many aspects of psychological well-being, including vitality, self-esteem, and coping skills. Acting in accordance with one's core self, a trait called self-determination, is ranked by some experts as one of the three basic psychological needs, along with competence and the sense of relatedness,” says Karen Wright (Psychology Today, May/June 2008.)

Social psychologist Michael Kernis of the University of Georgia, Athens, and graduate student Brian Goldman, now of Clayton State University, defined authenticity as “the unimpeded operation of one’s true or core self in one’s daily enterprise.”

They identified four components of authenticity. Self-awareness is the first and most basic: awareness of and confidence in your own intentions, emotions, and preferences. This is represented in:
* Defining what you want in life and making it happen vs. living the life that others say you “should” live
* Knowing your strengths and weaknesses and making appropriate choices based on them
* Taking personal responsibility for your actions vs. blaming outside forces when things go wrong
* Development of self-confidence to tackle life’s challenges, accomplish goals and to develop intimate relationships.

Kernis and Goldman also found that living authentically leads to developing better coping strategies versus manipulating others to get what you’re too unassertive to directly request or escaping through self-destructive patterns like substance abuse.

Doesn’t it make sense then that authentic living could help you deal with the current and stressful state of our world?
* Having an abiding faith in knowing what’s important in your life can help you see this national turmoil as secondary in importance to love of family and friends; it doesn’t make the stress go away but puts it into perspective
* It allows you to cope with greater stability, which improves clear thinking to figure out your options more quickly and decisively
* It encourages you to realize your tendencies so if you’re aware that you spend spontaneously, for example, it could motivate you to create and live by a responsible budget.

Defining what living authentically means to you begins by identifying your values. For example, if you value living within your means then you probably set a spending limit for holiday gifts before you begin shopping; your spending behavior expresses this value.

Next week we’ll look more closely at knowing what you value in life to set a clearer course for a more authentic life.


Jacquelyn Ferguson, M. S., of Inter Action Associates, is a trainer and a Stress Coach. E-mail her at www.jackieferguson.com with your questions or for information about her workshops on this and other topics and to invite her to speak to your organization