It’s common advice to ‘just be yourself’. And yet, the fact it’s commonly peddled as advice implies that’s it’s not easy to pull off.
But maybe it’s too easy to pull off… Isn’t ‘yourself’ simply the most frequent version of you that shows up in the world? More likely, we’re being ourselves all the time, and the hard part is actually becoming the version of ourselves that we imagine ourselves to be.
The yourself who stands for something against the crowd. The yourself who writes every day. The yourself who hits the gym regularly. The yourself who doesn’t get arsey in the midst of an inconvenience. The yourself who is generous even when there’s nothing to gain.
Perhaps it’s sacrilegious, but maybe not just being yourself is the big idea.
As a footnote, it just struck me that this might actually be the primary message of Walter Mitty.
The Thoughts of Others
“Everybody has a superficial side and a deep side, but this culture doesn’t place much value on depth — we don’t have shamans or soothsayers, and depth isn’t encouraged or understood. Surrounded by this shallow, glossy society we develop a shallow side, too, and we become attracted to fluff. That’s reflected in the fact that this culture sets up an addiction to romance based on insecurity — the uncertainty of whether or not you’re truly united with the object of your obsession is the rush people get hooked on.” – Joni Mitchell
