Embrace Your Many Multitudes

What authentic qualities are you hiding that may set you apart?

I always ask my clients to tell me as much about their authentic selves as possible.

Your authentic self is “the good, the bad and the ugly” of who you are at your core, I tell them to set up this exercise that goes below the surface level of “just be you.”

This is likely the hardest question I ask … and it’s often the very first.

Why?

Defining yourself — putting labels on yourself — is a challenge. None of us like to shine a light on our good, let alone our bad.

None of us want to limit ourselves or box ourselves into a corner with binary descriptions.

And yet, by embracing and accepting your whole self, you are accepting and embracing what helps you leave your unique footprint on the world.

You contain multitudes and it’s OK to accept that about yourself.

Multitudes can be identities, interests, beliefs, quirks, personality, work style and much more.

But, most of us, hide the ones that we consider our weaknesses.

As Parker Palmer says:

The only way to become whole is to put our arms lovingly around everything we’ve shown ourselves to be: self-serving and generous, spiteful and compassionate, cowardly and courageous, treacherous and trustworthy. We must be able to say to ourselves and to the world at large, “I am all of the above.” If we can’t embrace the whole of who we are—embrace it with transformative love—we’ll imprison the creative energies hidden in our own shadows and flee from the world’s complex mix of shadow and light.

Unlike writing our list of Shoulds, when I ask my clients to tell me about their authentic selves, every single person’s list is different and truly makes me smile, especially the “ugly’ parts, which everyone almost always see another way upon doing this exercise.

Braving YES is about embracing and holding all of our parts as courageously as possible.

The perfectionist has a seat at the table as does the disorganized part or the creative part or the bossy part.

We feel most out of alignment when we are trapped in situations where we cannot let our whole selves show up at the table.

When even one part is silenced, we feel friction.

For the longest time I was operating out of alignment — compartmentalizing all of my many multitudes.

All the parts of me were scattered about.

There was the me as a working mom.

There was the me as a thriving business owner.

There was the me as a dreamer.

There was the me as a social justice activist and anti-racist.

And then there was this: the highly spiritual me.

Then one day, I decided to bring all the parts of me together into one whole.

This is what I see happening and unfolding with my clients who are also operating in this very disparate manner where business is over here and creativity is over there on a shelf. Or, when a writer is languishing by focusing on selling.

Your wholeness journey — when seen in the light — contains many multitudes and it leads to that whole-hearted enoughness and audacious authenticity.

And, what a journey embracing and finding your wholeness is. Brené Brown calls this Braving the Wilderness.

Belonging so fully to yourself that you're willing to stand alone is a wilderness—an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. — Brené Brown

Audacious Authenticity isn’t just being you.

It’s doing you at all turns of your life. The personal. The business. The professional.

It’s tearing off the masks of pretending and saying THIS IS ME.

The journey toward wholeness begins long before you are aware or conscious of it.

This awareness and awakening, though, is the stepping stone to Braving YES where full alignment unfolds.

When was the last time you felt audaciously authentic, when you could be your fully wild, untamed self?

I have had such great success with my clients -- and myself -- leading people to their authentic selves as a way to feel more aligned in their businesses as well as stand out for their expertise and unique value.

Here are 6 Core Areas of to align with Audacious Authenticity: