The Guts Needed to Express Your Authenticity
What you need to know to express yourself authentically
Most People Stay Mediocre
Most writers knew really well that to express their own original thinking requires more than just a piece of knowledge.
We talk about a much bigger and more important thing than a piece of knowledge, a part where it can bring you to the real you, we talk about guts, bravery, or courage.
As a writer, you must be well-equipped with the tenacity to face the external factors coming to hunt your mind down. A mind that is responsible for how you perceive what others see in you or your craft.
A place in mind where you feel or get anxious all the time.
Just imagine, if you express a slightly different viewpoint on a particular topic that no writer wouldn’t dare to discuss? You probably get anxious because of the incoming critics.
No, no, forget critics. How about something more treacherous, what about hate, imbecile comments?
Will you take the hate as a price for your authenticity?
Don’t think about it. Just visualizing it alone will make you step out of the game for a long time.
So my advice is to stop expressing your authenticity and go play safe with the standard stereotype.
You wouldn’t dare to sacrifice your sanity just for the sake of innovation or fresh ideas.
I, just like any of you, am just a coward to become different from everybody else. We don’t have the guts to do it.
That is if you accept the advice and stay for mediocrity. However, you can be authentic, and original in expressing your thoughts and building a solid rock mental foundation to accept criticism or even hate in order to achieve the greatness of your authenticity.
Here is how you can get the guts in becoming authentic and defining the real “you”.
Genuine Story and Honest Experience Are The Recipes for The Bravery
Not too long ago, I read a writer’s story on Substack that talks about complex female characters while offering her own experience on a trip to one of the beautiful countries in Europe as a representation.
She wrote an essay, but what has caught my complete attention is that she wrote it down without giving a single damn consideration to her grammar at all.
And you know what? I read her story on Substack because she got featured as one of the most influential writers that have succeeded in building a larger and strong audience for her own niche.
The first time I read her story, like, what the heck is her style of writing?
When we should’ve written “I” in uppercase, she wrote “I” in lowercase all the time. Now imagine reading a story where “I” is always written with “i”. Not just that, she also wrote every title without uppercase from the very first word.
I probably get an “E” score for my English test if I use lowercase for a word that is used to represent myself in a story or writing, but she’s extraordinarily rare. It feels like she has her own world where what matters the most is the value of the story, not the grammar.
She is unique, attractive, and genuine about her story and perspective. She loved what she did. She is not following any lists of how good writing should be. There is no chain that holds her back to follow specific criteria.
On the contrary, the readers are the ones who should match her writing criteria but she never forces her readers to follow her stories. The audience just naturally follows her because they share the same perspective and interest offered by the writer.
Good writing is all about genuine experience. It must be honest without adding anything that might seem fictitious. A story where it can also make you feel alive in it.
In fact, I’m starting to fall in love with her publications. I might give all my support and subscription to her in the future.
The Takeaways
To be authentic, especially when expressing your thoughts or image or story publicly, first thing first, you must rally your guts.
It requires you to be courageous in taking the risks that no one is capable to take on. In order to build the mass-energy of bravery of doing the authentic, you can gain it through these several important things, that is:
#1. True story
A genuine story is truly essential in every piece of good writing and building authenticity. I’ve read many books, and articles, where the writers choose to deliver a special topic based on their own experience and without copying another writer in the same field.
#2. The passion for what you do or what interests you
Having a passion for a specific subject or interest is really important to maintain and attract your followers or audience and like-minded people to support and help you grow.
If you stay long enough in the game, everyone will finally acknowledge you since you have put hundreds of hours dedicated to what you do. And if you stay long enough even when everyone has left or avoid the game, they see you as someone who founded it.
You are going to be authentic because of staying passionate long enough about the game.
#3. Honesty
What you want to tell must be honest all the time. Honesty is actually the foundation of every authenticity. Honesty is the enemy of mediocrity too. Most mediocre stay the same and tell the same, common view because they’re too afraid of being different in approaching or seeing things.
Be honest and hear what your real inner voice has to offer deep down within your heart. It’s that little voice people are often afraid to show up to the world.
#4. Not getting attached to specific or rigid criteria for writing a story
Just like the story about a woman who has her own publications, you don’t have to follow some grammar rules as long as it’s viable to read, since the story is more important than everything. She also implies that you all mustn’t be afraid of being the real you.
Don’t follow any writing styles. Create your own style, create your authenticity.
#5. Focusing on a one-of-a-kind perspective about certain topics
Being unique and offering an authentic perspective on some things are challenging. You have to get the guts to do it. But before that, train your mind to see things from a really different point of view until it feels very strange to you.
You don’t want to be that “wannabe”. You want to be that “the only one and only”.
Last but not least, are you ready to express yourself authentically?
