How Being Authentic Almost Cost Me

Being authentic in your blogging is at the heart of the entire 10 Ways to Blog Your Truth talk that I give. It’s a critical aspect and learning to do it can mean great things for your blog, for you, and for your readers.

Yesterday, we talked about what being authentic means and why you should do it. Today, I’m going to share with you how being authentic could potentially be risky, but why you should do it anyway.

Being authentic means being you, 100% original. It means having integrity, being genuine. All the time, 100% of the time.

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering. ~Ben Okri

That’s why I knew that I needed to be true to myself when faced with a serious decision that would affect my future. I know, it sounds dramatic. It was.

You see, one of my goals is to become a published author (which I now am!) and I originally wanted to seek out traditional publishing through a Christian publisher. I have a friend that happens to be a literary agent, and she and I talked about my options as she helped coach me on the direction I should go. It was great getting to pick her brain and I was excited about the things I was hearing.

But then… 

When I was able to show her my book proposal for my first book, Beating Bed Rest, she had some words of advice I didn’t expect. She was concerned that Christian publishers wouldn’t want to work with me after seeing the ‘potty humor’ that was in the book. This potty humor was chapters about how people on bed rest weren’t going to have sex and that you may just go to the bathroom on yourself. It was honest, true, and essential for a book that was going to tell it like it is so bed resting moms-to-be would know what to really expect.

She gave me two options: take those parts out or don’t write the book. 

This didn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t write this book without those parts. It just didn’t feel right.

That inner voice has both gentleness and clarity. So to get to authenticity, you really keep going down to the bone, to the honesty, and the inevitability of something. – Meredith Monk

Not to mention that I knew what I was about to do the next day… I was getting ready to do a boudoir photo shoot that I’d put online for a lesson in self-image post I was working on.

When I got home, I talked about it with my husband, prayed about it, and leaned on a few friends for advice. The result? I needed to write the book the way I was called to. I needed to write that post on self-image.

I needed to be authentic.

Remember, this doesn’t mean you have to tell all of your story, it just mean you have to do it authentically. That’s what blogging your truth means.

Then I realized that secrecy is actually to the detriment of my own peace of mind and self, and that I could still sustain my belief in privacy and be authentic and transparent at the same time. It was a pretty revelatory moment, and there’s been a liberating force that’s come from it. ~Alanis Morissette

So, what are you holding back from? What’s keeping you from being authentic? Have you ever considered that by holding back, you’re actually costing yourself more? Maybe your calling IS to write that book. Maybe it IS to go against the grain, to do the hard stuff, to do what someone else is advising you not to.

Maybe you should trust yourself. Because being authentic can cost you, but not as much as not being authentic will.

Join me tomorrow as we look at Using Your Message for Good. For more of the 31 Days Of Blogging Your Truth series, just click on the image below.