When You Are Authentic & Open, Others Will Open Up To You

I have always known that when you are authentic and open with people, people tend to be open with you as well.

Yesterday I read a really good article on Oprah’s website about the power of authenticity written by Mike Robbins. It not only explained why you should be authentic but also gave 5 principles as a guide for being authentic. The principles are: knowing yourself, transforming your fear, expressing yourself, being bold and celebrating who you are.

All of those are things I have been working on. As far as expressing myself, I haven’t needed that much practice. I am a very open person much to the chagrin of my husband. What you see is what you get. I do not have a good poker face and I stink at lying. I also sometimes tell people too much and too easily. (Now you get why I like blogging. )

So because I am such an open book, people often tend to open up to me as well.

As many of you know I entered a competition whose prize is a book contract. Of course I asked everyone I knew to vote for me. If you haven’t voted for me yet click here for the information.

I was pleasantly surprised when a good friend of mine sent me back a request to read a manuscript he had written. It was good and it had obviously taken a long time to write. All that came to mind is that the more open I am and the more I go after my own dreams, others open up and share their dreams as well.

It was heartwarming and encouraging to me. Maybe part of my journey whether I ever publish a book or not, is to be part of the process for others. Who knows? It was just nice to see.

Have you ever found that when you open up, people open up to you as well?

Image:
TALK TO ME STRAIGHT
Robert Nunnally | Flickr Creative Commons

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