To sum it up

Writing a post every day for 31 days has been a challenge and I will be happy to go back to writing nonsense that isn't trying to make a point.

Writing about authenticity has been good for me though.  It's caused me to think a lot about a subject that I wanted to learn more about.  In all my thinking and writing, I have come to the conclusion that the key to authenticity is confidence.

Confidence.

When you are confident, you are free to follow your own direction.  You are free to let other people follow theirs.  You are free to not worry about comparisons.

And where do we find this elusive virtue?  Not from anyone else.  No one can hand you confidence.  We try, oh how we try, to give it to our children.  We tell them they are good and beautiful and smart and funny and we love them and they may or may not believe us because we may or may not have believed our parents when they told us the same things.

Since no one can give you confidence or self-esteem, it has to come from inside.  Here's what I know about confidence:  the way you get it is by doing things.  Contributing.  Serving.  Using your talents to find your talents.  Showing up.  Working hard.  People that do things are happy people.  When I think of the most confident people I know, they are not the people that are given public accolades or get stopped on the street for an autograph.  They are the people that quietly go about their lives, serving and loving and creating.

That's what I want for myself.

Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson