Photo by Nana B Agyei on Flickr
What will you be to the world today? Authentic or awesome. Actually, I don’t think they are mutually exclusive. I think you can be both, but it depends on which one you focus on.
“It’s more important to work at being authentic than to work at being awesome.” -Dan Darling
Do what you do today because you are good at at, because you are meant to do it, because it’s the season for you to do it. That’s being authentic. Being authentic builds trust with others. Being authentic is about being you. Being authentic is being real. People connect with real people.
Focusing on being awesome distracts us from living out who we really are. Instead we’re focused on what others think about us.
Many times we struggle because we don’t think we’re important. Do we really matter? Who is really listening and watching anyway? More than we know.
I just returned from spending two weeks with my nephews. My sister shared how my 18 year old nephew commented after I left about my work ethic. That surprised me. We hadn’t talked about work ethic. But, obviously he was watching.
The quote above is from a blog written by a pastor of a small church. He struggled at times when he’d walk into much larger churches and see all they were doing. Why did his little church really matter? He shares five lessons he’s learned. One of them is ‘authentic is better than awesome.’ Here are the remaining four:
- Just because we’re small doesn’t mean we’re unimportant.
- Strive to be good at a few things and do them well.
- You’re part of something bigger.
- Practice good leadership [no matter where you're at].
Read his entire post here.
No matter who big or small we think we are. It matters. Because in actually, we are a part of something much bigger.
You matter. You being authentic today is better than being awesome. I think you being authentic is awesome.
What helps us focus more on being authentic than on being awesome?
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