Be True To Who You Are Charles Taylor would say that the phrase be true to who you are is a lie because you can never truly be true to who you are. He would say it is more likely that you are being true to being like everyone else. This means you are more like everyone who shaped you and not at all like who you want to be. They are outside voices always telling us what to do, so we can never be true to who we are. We rely on others to tell us who to be and not our own voice. They are a lot of external influences that are stopping us. They are some we are aware of such as our environment and some we are not aware of such as how our society and its laws molds us into what it wants us to be (51). It begs the question can I really be true …show more content…
No one else can be your true self they can just influence how you turn out to be. Throughout life, we can miss out on the factors that make up your true self. Everyone true self is different, but we each share a piece of our true self. For example, you can listen to your parents or not when finding who you truly are. Who you are is an internal factor and we are affected by external factors in the world. We are writing the definition of ourselves which always includes others. In owning myself, you can say that doing your own thing or finding your own fulfillment is being true to yourself (53). When talking to someone you are reasoning with someone to decide who to be. People make up who you are for you, not the other way around. The people closest to us shape what we like, what we do, and who we are through our language. Everything about our language is who we are to how we speak and who we speak to. This language can be verbal and non-verbal. The language we are introduced to is by someone else through our conversations we are changed ourselves. George Herbert mead called these significant others (53). You can not achieve it on you own, but through our language, we become the things that make us who we are. Through language, we are recognized as to who we are through the conversation we have that we made a decision based on what they like and not what we like. Our most significant …show more content…
If I start to like something because of someone I love it becomes a part of who I am. Without the people I love I would not be who I truly am. No matter how hard I try to leave and be free on my own. I am stuck without them being pieces of them and not my whole self. A sense of who we are is found in being alone. What makes me different from other makes me who I truly am. I may be 5 '4 but a tree can also be the same height as me. If I was the first person to create something it is significant because other recognized that I am the first is what made it significant in the first place (55). No matter who you like or what you want to do we have to be true to who we are. This mean you are not being true to yourself. Our small differences do not matter and you are insignificant by yourself (56). Your real self-has to be chosen by someone else because you can not do it alone. You will always be your true self that others have made. Being true to yourself is like a gift that someone has given you and you just keep passing that gift down. Without others, we are nothing but an empty basket. We are not individualized like we think we are. We are each other in everything we do from the day we are born (58). We have all the tools to do it, but we use them differently for our own fulfillment through the relationship we have (59). Charles Taylor argues you can not be true to who you are without the relationship with
Most people find that there is no one that knows you better than you know yourself. We know our hopes, wishes and dreams better than anyone else, even our own parents, and we know what we are willing to do to get them. I chose to write about myself for this very reason. I believe that I know myself well enough to be able to analyze myself and understand why I am the way that I am.
In The Ethics of Authenticity Charles Taylor makes a radical claim that we only become capable of understanding ourselves and defining our identity through dialogue. He says humans are fundamentally dialogical creatures (29) and cannot develop into individuals without interaction with others. Through dialogue we are able to exchange our ideas with others and construct our values and beliefs from bits and pieces we hear. This is how we become authentic humans. Authenticity is being true to yourself. It almost seems paradoxal; to discover your individuality you must converse with others. Charles Taylor also believes that some lives are better than others, based on how authentically a life is lived. In modern society, where soft relativism prevails, this view is often seen as unacceptable. Current thought seems to be that lives are all equal; in fact the choices we face have neither a right nor a wrong answer. Charles Taylor believes this causes people to become self absorbed, and can bring about a loss of meaning in their lives.
Again, I believe Taylor is missing some important feature to his theory. It seems he is correct in stating one should have their own sense of meaning to their life not just others’ perception that one’s life is meaningful. However, there is still the problem of giving equal meaning to everyone life that is doing what they love to do. As a result, to answer this problem one could suggest in order for one to have a meaningful life a person must be subjectively fulfilled by pursuing objectively valuable ends. This way it ensures the person must find meaning in their own lives as well as creating something that benefits many that will give others the perception the person has a meaningful life.
“ The self's struggle for authenticity and definition will never end unless it's connected to its creator -- to you and to me. And that can happen with awareness -- awareness of the reality of oneness and the projection of self-hood. For a start, we can think about all the times when we do lose ourselves.”
From society to family to media, external influences never seem to disappear from everyday life. These outward forces tend to leave a lasting impression on us for as long as we live. Because they are so prevalent in our daily lives, exterior factors will have a significant influence on us, specifically our sense of self and happiness. When defining our sense of self, it eventually comes down to how we interpret our individual self-image. In most cases, we do not truly know who we are from our own mindset. Therefore, we take into account the reactions that those around us have an influence on our actions and decisions. From these external effects, we create the persona of who we are. In his article, Immune to Reality, Daniel Gilbert explains
This is the main idea of Waldo’s philosophy. He thinks that a man should learn to express himself. Being yourself will help you to solve the problems of your life. We need to trust ourselves in order to improve our life, like all great men have done. Self-reliance stems from within deep in our soul which is the pillar of our personal power and self-respect. This source of all greatness, sets us free form the ego and helps us to transcend through the ideals of love, truth and justice; some people call this “the moral sense”. The soul cannot be completely defined or described but it is the only thing we can be absolutely sure of, since all other facts are temporary. Being ourselves allows us to obtain many more answers and to understand our unconscious intentions. Humans may exceed their limited ideas by realizing that God does exists and that in Him, we will find many answers if we open ourselves to Him.
As we grow older, we start to construct and develop ourselves. The way we dress, talk and act in public, to what we do at home. All of this is determined by a term called identity, which helps us shape who we are as people. This is decided based on our surrounding such as family, friends, society, all the way to the internal chances, like our behavior which help shape out personality. Some people might not know who they are, they could still be finding themselves, but might not know if being themselves is something they can do. Moreover, they could be trying to fit into someone elses shoes trying to be something they are not. Which is why we try hardest to shape our identity but in the end, it is hard to find out who we are because all we want to do is just fit into what society tells us we should be.
...es that we are all unique in our own way and at some point will realize our potential and try to achieve more not that our genes made us act the way we do.
“It would not matter for a new child's toy. But later it does matter, doesn’t it? We do not dare to let people make their own. Not safe, the Giver suggested. Definitely not safe, Jonas said with certainty. What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong?”(98) Rather, a person is free when they make their own decisions for themselves. When a person has freedom and make their own choices may they make mistakes, but from the mistake that person will grow into a better individual. “And here in this room, all alone, I re-experience them again and again. It is how wisdom comes. And how we shape our future.”(78) So, personal choice allows a person live the way they want by choosing what they think is best for them. Personal choice allows a person to have freedom which helps them to live a true and happy life with their own eyes. Lastly, personal choice is important because it lets people have freedom, to choose for themselves and live the way they want to live.
If I can successfully shape my life around ideas of self-reliance I can be exactly who I want to be. I look around me and don’t want to conform to society’s standards, I recognize that there is an easy way out, but try my best to remain true to myself by following my heart with pure conviction. Because of my desire to remain true to myself, I closely identify with Emerson in “Self-Reliance”: “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, - that is genius.”
There are many types of self that people can fit into. There is who I am (actual self), who I might become (po...
The self I created was a totally independent young woman who relied on no one and had the best adventures exploring life on her own. My social media self was rather egocentric and while I received many ‘likes’ and many ‘follows’; that is not the real me. The real me is rather unpredictable. Depending on the situation that I might encounter myself in, there is going to be a different version of me. It is natural for people’s personality to fluctuate from time to time, or scenario to scenario. While both the egocentric and the sociocentric selves can intersect at multiple points, my real self identifies in a deeper manner with the sociocentric aspects of self
In order to understand how one perceives situations and how they can determine the way one communicates; we first must understand the value of self-concept. Self is easily defined; it is one's beliefs, attitudes, feelings and values. It is who one is and what one stands for. Self-concept, is a relevantly stable set of perceptions and emotional states. It is the way one sees and understands oneself, and contributes to how one perceives oneself and perceives situations. One's self-concept may alter their perception, and either enhance or impede one's communication effectiveness. The way one sees oneself can influence the way they see their social surroundings. Only after one become aware of oneself can they be aware of their physical and social surroundings, which will allow one to perceive situations and people with a truer idea and create a more positive outcome.
The question, “What is involved in being true to your self?” is very complicated. There are many aspects to this question. First you would need to know what is meant by being true. Being true is the act of putting forth sincerity, or being genuinely faithful. It is honesty, seriousness, and earnestness. Next you would need to realize what it means to be a self. In class we discussed the difference between animals, rational animals, and people. This topic also came up in the reading about the concentration camps. Frankl quotes,
We are more than our identities. To know your inner self is to know your purpose, your values, your goals, and your motivations. Aligning with your inner thyself. Knowing your inner self comes from self-awareness, having a clarity of your inner self opens the consciousness and set up a solid focus in self-actualization. Referring to the need of personal growth and development that exists throughout their life cycle. Life is about pushing self in accomplishing goals although a challenge because of risky obstacles that always lands on our track of completion. An individual’s identity is molded by many diverse aspects. Family, culture, friends, personal interests and adjoining environments are all influences that tend to help shape a person’s