Don't Be Yourself

2 Trap 1 Always Be Honest, with Yourself and Others

The most obvious meanings associated with authenticity are genuineness, sincerity, and honesty, especially in interpersonal relationships. An authentic person, in this sense, is truthful with others, as opposed to someone who deceives or cheats.¹ As simple as this may sound, there are two problems with this idea.

The first is that people are hardly ever true to themselves, which obviously makes it difficult for them to be truthful with others.² For example, if you ask me whether I ate the last cookie and I answer “no,”—not because I haven’t, but because I mistakenly think I haven’t (perhaps I forgot, or I erroneously assumed it wasn’t the last one)—it would be hard to interpret my answer ...