5 Tips for Harnessing your Authenticity in Business

Your authenticity is who you truly are, the core of your being. I’m not just talking about your interests or characteristics but literally the your essence. But most of us spend our lives trying to fit in and live up to society’s standards for us rather than discovering what truly makes us, us.

But that’s no way to live. Being your true authentic self regardless of what others think is such a powerful feeling that I want for all of you so I’m spilling my best tips to help you start harnessing that authenticity so you can step into your power and start making bold moves for your life.

TIP #1: NURTURE THE PARTS OF YOU THAT YOU MAY NOT LOVE

Start by writing out a list of anything and everything that makes you, you. Characteristics, values, interests, anything that you feel like contributes to who you are write it down!

Now that you have the list, I wanted you to go through it and cross off anything you included because you felt like you should or that are things you adopted solely to fit in (aka you don’t actually like it).

After you cross all those off, go through the list again and circle anything that you feel like you typically hide out of fear of being judged or made fun of.

The pieces you circled? These are what you need to start nurturing.

Not a fan of your laugh? Next time you try to stifle it, stop and let that big, bold laugh out!

Don’t love your curly hair? Start wearing it naturally and learning how to style it to be curly.

Worried you’re intimidating to others? Stop hiding your accomplishments and brag a little more.

You see, harnessing our authenticity comes from embracing every single thing about us and that also means the things you might not necessarily like or be comfortable sharing about yourself. Once we start to embrace these, we naturally start to build the confidence we need to step into who we truly are without caring what others think about it.

TIP #2: FOCUS ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS

It’s also equally as important to ask yourself what truly lights you up so you can start focusing on that and what really matters. Yes, you want to nurture the parts of you that you don’t normally embrace but you want to make sure you’re also doing things that make you feel really good. That way you can feel your best while working on the other pieces of harnessing your authenticity that might make you a little more uncomfortable.

Start each day by taking inventory of how you’re feeling and identify whether you’re feeling balanced or not. Then you can move into identifying how you want to feel (if you need a shift) and ask yourself what you need to actually get you there.

My free life balance worksheet will actually help walk you through this whole process. Click to download.

Asking yourself what you need and focusing on the activities that actually raise your vibration is essential to living an authentic life.

TIP #3: PUSH YOURSELF TO BE VULNERABLE

I know this is difficult for a lot of us (I was once the queen of hiding my true feelings and being “cool” with everything) but giving yourself permission to be open, honest, and vulnerable with yourself and others opens up a whole new layer of authenticity. You’ll be surprised how much lighter and freer you feel in your own skin and how many people will likely express how they’ve once felt the same way or experienced something similar.

You don’t have to make this too complicated either. Start by reaching out to a trusted friend to share that you’re having a bad day. Ask for help when you need it. Validate your own experiences and feelings by naming them out loud without judgement. Or connect with someone on Instagram sharing their vulnerability. Baby steps compound over time to lead to bigger steps so just find somewhere slightly outside of your comfort zone to start.

We often think we’re protecting ourselves by not being vulnerable but really it’s hurting us. We’re hiding parts of ourselves because we feel like no one wants to know or cares. When in reality, simply expressing whatever you’re going through (whether it’s to yourself or another person), sets it free into the world so you can focus more on loving who you actually are than hiding parts of yourself.

TIP #4: OWN YOUR MISTAKES

One of the biggest influences to our growth is when we start taking responsibility for ourselves and yes, that includes our mistakes. We’re human and that means mistakes are inevitable. The only way to move past them and get better is to own up to them. So if you’ve hurt someone, even if you did it unintentionally, take responsibility. Or maybe you’ve made a mistake that hurt yourself. Either way, it’s still important to own that.

This is going to take a lot of self-reflection on your part. How could you have approached this differently? What did I learn from this? Could I have avoided this? This is especially true if the mistake isn’t fresh and there’s no way to make it “right” now.

Just like with tips #1 and #3, you have to embrace all that you are and all that you have experienced. That doesn’t mean you have to dwell on it or that you have to live in this past mistake. By taking responsibility, you’re freeing yourself from staying stuck in this mistake. You can learn and grow from it. And by doing this, you can also understand how this has shaped you into who you are and take ownership of that as well.

There are potentially a lot of layers that can be uncovered in this step because you also may uncover that you keep finding yourself repeating these mistakes or situations. Digging into why this may happen could uncover a truly transformative realization that could help you understand who you are on a completely new level. (If you’re not sure where to start with this, I’m happy to help!)

TIP #5: GET COMFORTABLE EXPRESSING YOU DON’T KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT A TOPIC TO HAVE AN OPINION

We can’t know everything about everything but at times we may act like we do so we don’t appear stupid… especially in arguments. But there is truly power in saying, “Hey, I don’t actually know enough about this to give my opinion.”

This is another level of vulnerability that is really hard to implement because, well, we’ve been conditioned to know all the things or at least act like we do. So stepping up and saying you don’t? Whoa!

But this can help uncover where you may have knowledge gaps (we all have them!) and if you’re curious enough, you can actually go research the topic more so you can go back to the person you were discussing it with and have a deeper, more meaningful conversation.

This also gives others in your circle permission to do the same. When you step into your authenticity, it inspires others to also step into their authenticity… even if that means admitting you don’t know what you’re talking about. This is how we normalize that there really is no normal. We’re all unique individuals with our own interests, traits, and opinions and that’s a beautiful thing.