Being True to Yourself: What does it mean?

When was the last time you are proud to say that you are just being true to yourself? A few years back, I can say that I am not. I live every day like what most people tell you should. My life revolved around my work schedule and of course, a few more years back, studying hard since they always tell me that it’s the future. That changed a few months back when I was now focused on who I really am. Thus, through experience, I’ve known what it means to be yourself.

Being true to yourself means that you are completely honest with what you think, feel, and value. This means you are acting according to who you really are and what you believe in. Because of this, you don’t have to worry about pleasing others and instead, live by your own rules and standards.

That is basically what being true to yourself means. It doesn’t need to be very complicated since it is something that we could be very familiar with. I also believe that by telling you what it means to be honest with yourself, you would be able to finally understand the feeling in order for you to also try being yourself.

What does it mean to be true to yourself?

Being true to yourself is to act in a way that you are agreeing with your own core values and beliefs. That means your thoughts, feelings, and actions are made in accordance with who you are instead of somebody else. That’s why people who are true to themselves are generally happier than others.

That’s right, people who are true to themselves are generally happier.

The reason is that we all have differences. These tiny differences make us who we are.

Not only we are physically different, but we are also mentally different. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses.

We have different levels of emotional intelligence and some are better than others in some aspects.

But I do not want to go very deep.

My point is we are different from each other. My goal is my goal and your goal is your goal.

I have my own likes and dislikes, and you have different likes and dislikes.

Thus, if we all generalize ourselves with some iron-clad rule set by society, there will only be a few people that will be fine with it.

Because of differences, there are people who like standards society has set, and there are those who don’t.

For example, the go-to school, get good grades, get a good job, then retire has a lot of benefits, and a lot of people like it.

But in all honesty, I don’t. And I think if you’re reading this blog post, I guess you also don’t.

I’ve made a video about the mistake I made around 5 years ago which led me to a lot of regrets.

If you’re interested, you can watch it here.

For me, I didn’t like the course I took in college. That’s why I was lost. Since society has told us about the study, get a job, then retire track, I was lost since I know I’m not going that path.

But that doesn’t only apply to that. It also applies to your relationships.

If you are limiting yourself a lot because of friendships or a partner who hates some things you usually do, then you are also a victim of not being true to yourself.

And the more you hide your true self, the more it will try to come out. This makes you always on guard and trusts me that it causes a lot of stress.

However, if you know and trust yourself, you will be able to break free from these shackles. You will be able to do the things you love.

For example, my love for sharing things led me to make this website and my YouTube channel.

For me, this is just an act of breaking free and taking the risk. Since I didn’t pursue my course, I tried my best to live according to my liking.

Even if life is hard, I know how to live with it. I have my core values and beliefs in check. I know my likes and dislikes. I always do journaling so that I can always be on track if I am working for my goals or not.

And take note of my own goals since being true to yourself means that you already know what you want to do.

Oh, I made a video guide on how to do Journaling effectively. You don’t need to journal for hours. I discussed in this video how you can do effective journaling for 5 minutes each day.

Your real goals don’t need to be very deep such as changing the world or something like that. The only requirement here is that it allows you to wake up every day ready to take on the next challenge.

I can still tell a lot of things but I think it will save both of us more time if I just list down how you will know if you’re being true to yourself.

How do you know if you’re being true to yourself?

To know if you are being true to yourself, you have to be completely honest about your own thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions. This means you know what you want in life and you don’t waste your time since you are following your passion.

Here, I have listed the things you could experience if you are being true to yourself. Since there are a lot, I’ve listed all of them below to act as a summary.

Here are the signs of knowing if people are being true to themselves.

1. They don’t waste their time
2. They always do their best
3. They know their current situation
4. They know who to hang out with
5. They are logical
6. They know what to focus on
7. They don’t care about what others think
8. They are firm with their beliefs
9. They accept when they are wrong
10. They make their own decisions
11. They know what they want
12. They are confident

Now, let’s discuss them one by one below.

1. They don’t waste their time

I remember when I was quite lost on what I wanted to do. Since I am not true to myself, I kept on rejecting my own thoughts on my real dreams.

In fact, to be honest, I made a YouTube channel when I was in middle school but did not pursue it since I am just thinking of getting a stable job in the future.

Right now, I can’t even access that channel since I forgot the password.

Because of constant neglect of my own goals, I started wasting my own time. I just play video games all day since I don’t think I’m living with purpose.

However, if you are true to yourself without any shackles from others, you will start to finally accept what you want to do.

Do you want to be a painter, singer, actor, dancer, or blogger like me? Then whatever that is, as long as it’s your real goal, then you will surely work hard for it.

But here is the point.

If you know your real goals, you will start to not waste any time. You know how precious your time is so you will do whatever it takes to make the most out of it.

Such as right now, it is Sunday but I have to finish this article for you.

But I will enjoy my Sunday later after finishing this blog post. But I want to write in my journal later that I’ve accomplished something today.

“Life is like a journey. If you don’t know or are not true to yourself, you will not know where to go. Thus, you will just waste your time doing useless things which bring no satisfaction.”

Jason Ong

2. They always do their best

People who are truly themselves are constantly doing their best.

This is because most of them are working with a purpose. They have real goals to accomplish. Thus, they will do their best to not just work, but learn how to achieve these things.

For example, because my area of expertise is completely different from being a blogger and YouTuber, I started to learn how to blog and edit videos.

I always do my best no matter what.

Remember that rejecting yourself of your real goals and dreams is the complete opposite of not being true to yourself.

3. They know their current situation

People who are true to themselves know their current situation.

For example, if they are not skilled enough to accomplish their goals, then they know that they should have a beginner’s mindset and learn things.

Some people don’t get it but fake confidence is different from people who really know themselves.

Fake confidence means that the person is just pure confidence with no skill.

I believe that skill and confidence should coincide with one another. Confidence should go up with skills as it is the core foundation of confidence.

A person who is true to themselves knows their strengths and their weaknesses.

That’s why when dealing with things they are not good about, they are confident enough to accept it and try to learn things.

Admitting you can’t do something doesn’t mean that you’re not good enough. It shows that you are genuine with the results.

And admitting that you are wrong or you’re not good at something is something only purely confident people would do.

4. They know who to hang out with

People who are true to themselves from what type of people they should be hanging with.

I am not saying that people who are true to themselves will just ditch their friends away. What I mean is that they know if the people around them are preventing them from their goals.

For example, if you want to make a business and the people you are with are preventing you from, then it might not be a good one.

Although there are people who are just concerned thus preventing you from achieving your goals, there are others who are extremely toxic.

There are also others you would really pull people down with since they don’t want anyone to be above them.

A person who is really true to himself or herself knows the value of influence. If they are constantly being fed up with negatives, they know that they should try to get away and find people who would support them.

5. They are logical

People who know themselves are very logical in the sense that they value the importance of thinking.

Mindlessly wasting your day on unimportant tasks is what separates people who are true to themselves, and those who aren’t.

They also know the value of time and nobody can take it back. This means that since most of them as goal-oriented, they are logical enough to think of ways to achieve their goals in as little time as possible.

6. They know what to focus on

As I said, mindlessly wasting time is one of the main things you’ll see in a person who doesn’t know their true self.

The reason is that it can be hard to work on what to focus on if they don’t know their goals.

This was especially true when I was wasting years of my life trying to go again to college, trying to dance, applying for a teaching job, and many more.

Right now, my only focus is on this website and my YouTube channel.

7. They don’t care about what others think

Sometimes, the ones who will prevent a person from following their real-life goals are the ones around them.

Comments such as “why are you quitting your stable job?” or “You’re not good enough to be a writer.” or “Remember that your grammar is bad, why are you starting a blog?”

These are the comments of people who will usually put a person away from their goals.

While it might be true that you don’t have the skills as of now, you can learn.

For example, I learned how to build my websites from scratch since I have no idea how. I learned how to write even if I’m not a writer.

But here is the point.

People who know themselves don’t get validated by others. Instead, they validate themselves.

Even if they’re not good enough, they know that they can improve. They can accurately assess themselves.

8. They are firm with their beliefs

A few years back, I said that I did a lot of things since I was out of focus.

I tried teaching for about 3 years, I tried applying to an accountancy school, and many more.

The thing is I am not firm enough since I am not sure what I want to do. Or maybe I know what to do but I am not admitting it.

By being firm in your beliefs, you are becoming grittier. This means you will do whatever it takes to reach your goals.

Grit is something a person should have to achieve their goals since nothing big is built overnight.

9. They accept when they are wrong

Someone who is true to themselves would admit their mistakes. No questions asked.

If they know that they aren’t skilled enough to work on something, they would admit it and work on it.

There is nothing wrong with admitting you’re wrong. It only means that you are confident enough to accept everything about you including your flaws.

10. They make their own decisions

People who are true to themselves know what they really want.

So, they don’t need to let others do their decision for them.

They make their own decision because they know that nobody would really know them as deep as how they know themselves.

In short, they make their own decision because they are the only ones who fully know themselves.

And letting others decide for them would most likely not yield the things they want.

11. They know what they want

Same with the last section, a person who is true to themselves knows what they want.

This means they are decisive enough to decide on things since they know what would make them happy.

12. They are Confident

Lastly, people who are true to themselves are very confident.

Confidence comes from knowing both your strengths and weaknesses.

You are confident in showing your strength, and you are confident enough to accept your weakness.

Even if you are not good at something, it doesn’t mean that you can’t improve to make yourself better.

This is true confidence and the confidence a person who truly understands themselves has.

I know that someone who is true to themselves won’t have all of these traits I’ve given. But I made sure that they would get at least 5 of these.

If you have a lot of these signs, then most likely, you are being true to yourself.