Enduring the itch to fix it.
I didn't have time to write a story today, so I wrote an insight instead.
Much like John Candy's character famously said in the movie Planes, Trains & Automobiles, "I like me."
But I didn't used to.
"Just be yourself” used to sound more accusational than encouraging to me. If you’ve never felt safe enough to exist as you are, without shapeshifting to keep someone else’s peace, “just being yourself” means resisting the urge to adapt.
That's problematic when it's the very thing you’ve always done to protect yourself.
What's worse, "just being yourself" asks that you intentionally choose not to shapeshift—that you let the other person's discomfort go unresolved and endure the itch to fix it before just... letting that urge go altogether.
Our Daily MAP Year Prompt
199/365
When you hear "just be yourself", what comes to mind? How do you react?
onward.
For more on this daily column and The MAP Year Project, read the backstory here. And if you know someone who'd appreciate this, pass it along.
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