More Ramblings on Authenticity

I need to get this out in the open: I’m a worrier. I worry about the world around me. I worry about other people’s problems. I worry about my problems. I worry about what other people think of me. Because I worry so much, I can’t turn my mind off. It’s constantly racing: Will-I-find-a-job-do-i-even-like-what-I’m-doing-am-i-making-a-difference-does-he-like-me-ohmygoddiditurnoffthestove?!

So in an attempt to organize my thoughts, I’m writing it all down. Streamlining. Trying to simplify: Authenticity. Creativity. Mindfulness/Deliberate Living. Gratitude. Joy. That’s what I’m striving for.

Let’s start with this idea of authenticity. I throw around the term a hell of a lot lately, so I feel like I need to explain myself. To me, authenticity means, living as truly and as honestly as you can in relation to your desires, hopes, likes, interests, and character. In other words, it’s a kind of congruence between what you hold within you (your values, talents, passions) and your outer world (your relationships, jobs, interactions, community).

Side note: Authenticity as a philosophy stems from an existential term (shout out to Duquesne’s existential phenomenology program woot woot you crazy people). Wiki does a nice job in explaining it if you’re more interested in authenticity in relation to existentialism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authenticity_(philosophy)

Even bigger side-note: I like Heidegger. He would be one of the 3 people I invite to dinner if I could invite 3 people to dinner either alive or dead. Heidegger challenges that existential authenticity is experience-oriented. The “self” is ephemeral and changes from moment to moment. Therefore, there is no authentic self only momentary authenticity within a certain situation. I wish could go on, but my head might explode.


So what’s the problem here? Shouldn’t you just do what you love when you love it and be done with it?

I’ve been struggling a bit with it. First of all, for many, it’s kind of damn hard to find what you love and then have that love supported in the “outside world”. We have therapists, we have self-help books, we have society, family, church, non-churchy things, organizations, media, friends. We have all of these options for “support systems”. Although some have better intentions than others, they can make it hard for us to distinguish our own “truth” from what people are telling us should be true.


It’s all really a multi-step process: You have to first have a sense of identity and then live in accordance to your sense of self. In order to live that way you also have to be careful not to interpret the world through institutionalized concepts and abstractions.

Then there’s the issue of selfishness. Is living this way selfish? Disregarding what other people say you should do? Yes. And maybe that’s the point. Maybe working on authenticity is the most selfish thing we can do. I’m not saying we owe the world anything, but… if we did… wouldn’t putting our best selves out into it be the greatest act we could hope to accomplish?