The Scratching Post: Always Stay True To Yourself

Life has taught me many lessons, but one of the most important ones is to always stay true to yourself. This lesson has served me as a compass throughout challenging times in my life. If you remain honest and true to who you are, you will be better prepared for whatever comes your way. You will be able to adapt and respond to what life has in store for you. It can be tempting to conform to what others want you to do or think, but it won’t truly make you happy. Sticking with your beliefs and values no matter the circumstance will lead to a more fulfilling life in the long run. 

Earlier in my life, this lesson helped me when it came time to pick a college major. I could have taken the advice of my peers and pursued a "practical" degree such as business administration. Instead, I choose history because understanding the past had always fascinated me. At the time, I was not sure what I would do with this education. Most went on to teach, while others steered toward law. I liked to tell and write stories. 

My thinking was that if I enjoyed what I was learning, I would excel at what I ultimately did with this education wherever that education would take me. As a result, I stayed true to myself and majored in history. 

Much to my delight, I learned that my education in history equipped me with valuable skills in research and writing that transferred nicely to roles to which I eventually gravitated such as journalist, technical writer, digital content producer, content strategist, community builder, web portal manager, and even a self-published writer of fiction. After all, there is a parallel to be drawn from analyzing pre-industrial economic data to understand what led to the Industrial Revolution to analyzing web traffic data to similarly understand what led to an explosive growth of a website. 

Another experience when staying true to myself paid off is during times when important decisions had to be made. It can be easy to take advice from those around you without considering your own feelings about a situation first but ultimately you must do what makes you happy and not others. Taking some time to reflect on what you truly want will lead to better outcomes than blindly following someone else’s opinion. 

For example, earlier in my career I made a decision to leave a promising job, which by all appearances, was a wonderful stepping stone within a Fortune 500 corporation. In this role, I served as a corporate communications administrative assistant and was the only person in my 20s that had a desk on the executive floor. The exposure was priceless. Nonetheless, I had a compelling ambition to do more. Therefore, I choose to leave this position to try my hand as a freelance writer. This did not turn out as I imagined. 

While I did enjoy some success, I had been rather naive about what I could hope to find in terms of ongoing work and what I needed to learn to be successful at the level I had envisioned. At the time, I considered this decision a step backward in my career as I eventually was forced to take a series of temporary jobs. What if I had stayed at that job? 

What I learned many years later is that the decisions we make define who we end up becoming and, in that sense, experiences, both good and bad, are simply learning opportunities. Sometimes we make wrong decisions, or we fail at what we initially set out to do. That is okay. When you are true to yourself, that is merely part of the process. Being true to yourself teaches you hard valuable truths such as that experiencing failure is oftentimes how we learn and grow. 

So, while I struggled after leaving that position, I learned valuable lessons that continue to serve me today. I gained an understanding of how to search for clients, market myself as a service provider, and establish a professional business. More importantly, I learned about myself. I better understood what I was lacking and where I needed to improve but also where I was strong and excelled. 

It can be easy to give up when things are not going your way, but having the strength and determination to keep going even in hard times is what will ultimately lead you to success. Though it would have been easier to throw in the towel, instead, I chose to push myself and stay focused on reaching my goals to build a career as a writer and ultimately to position myself today as a writer from which other writers might learn. I achieved this because I was true to myself. 

Life teaches us many lessons but the one that stands out above all else to me is to stay true to yourself no matter what. By doing this, you will be more capable of navigating through difficult times and staying on track toward achieving your goals. This life lesson of being true to yourself has served me well throughout my life and I am sure it will continue to do so in the future as I am equally confident it will serve you well too in our mutual pursuit of success.