Assuming Your True Manhood

 Pepsi got caught back in 2013 lying about their Naked Juice’s products being ‘all natural’. They had to pay $9 millions dollars to make up for that. Even more, we're left with a poor opinion of the company today.

We value authenticity because when someone is honest with us, we feel important and valued. When someone is authentic around us, we also feel allowed to be like that and we let go of the fear of judgement. 

Then why are most people fake? I think it is partly because we are all trying to become somebody we are not and also because we don’t want to get judged or rejected.

If so many people value authenticity and honesty, there is a reason and you can apply that to your life. In my article, you will learn why you need to value honesty to become an adult in the mental sense of the word.

 

1. Transition between boyhood to manhood

We are all trying to become better people. I already said that improvement is the essence of life! Being authentic and honest is such a key factor in our transition from boyhood to manhood. Whereas boys try to get as much pleasure with as little pain as possible, men live their life based on their own guiding principles. The difference is that a man will be authentic even if it implies a degree of pain (here, man means being an adult in the mental sense. Not the opposite of female).

Boys lie to avoid trouble, men are ready to be authentic even if that means trouble. This is an important value. If you change yourself, your feelings and your goals to be accepted and unjudged, then you are weak and desperate. If you can’t stand up for yourself and your thoughts, then you are weak: no one will stand up for you. This is the mindset to have.

2.You stop lying to yourself

How many times do you lie to yourself to feel better? Too much, you should never lie to yourself because it camouflages the real areas in which you need improvement on. Why would you lie to yourself anyways? If you don’t like who you’ve become, then you have to change. When you are not brutally honest with yourself, you might feel satisfied with where you think you are, but the story you tell yourself doesn't reflect reality. 

If you don’t know that your mental health needs improvements because you tell yourself excuses about why it isn’t that bad all the time, then you can’t try to fix it. Did you know that the first step of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is to be honest? Well, that's for a good reason: without knowing there is a problem, you can’t fix it.

Really, the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one!

3. You find people that like you for who you really are

Nice car, loads of money, power and respect. Everyone wants this. Yet, someone might have ALL this and still feel lonely inside and un understood. That’s because everyone in this millionaire’s life is attracted to his stuff, not to him.

That’s the point I am trying to make here: even if you have everything but you are not capable of authenticity, nobody will like you for yourself. Hell, how can someone enjoy you for who you are if that person never met the true version of you?

Finding people that we relate to is hard because not everyone is compatible. There is a sentence that just came to my mind while writing this: finding people you relate to is hard when you are authentic, but impossible when you are fake.

This sentence illustrates my entire point. 

4. Good things come your way 

 

When you are honest about your feelings and desires, what you wished for comes your way.

This is the most important point I want to make in my article. Being honest makes you rewarded for having the courage to admit and speak your truth.

Really, the feeling you get when you are raw and 100% with people is amazing. Your confidence skyrockets and you are less afraid to do stupid shit you’d do alone. It lifts a big weight off of your chest. When you have the courage to admit how you feel and what you want, your desires COME YOUR WAY. I have no idea why exactly although I have an hypothesis for it.

Honesty and authenticity take courage. People like risk takers. People admire courage. It might be that because people admire the balls you have to express yourself freely and to try to reach your goals that they are more enclined to help you by doing what you desire….

5. Bottom line

It takes big balls to be straight forward about how you feel and this fact should motivate you to take actions. That’s what produces the best results. That’s how you enter into manhood.

As Theodore Roosevelt said, a man who tries but fails while daring greatly is always better than the one who did not try at all. This man’s place shall “never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Don’t worry about the critics who never actually try to do the work themselves. 

Today you will tell your real feelings to someone in your life. You must have no reserve: how do you really feel about them? This is a challenge. What kind of a life is it anyways if you never taste honesty?

Come back here to document how you feel after that. Now, go!