I had a great authentic childhood. As I became an adult, I started to make subtle decisions and choices. I chose to honor everything outside of my true, authentic self. Over time, bit by bit, I seemed to get off course of my true authentic compass. I began to disregard some of my feelings. I began to choose to bury them. I became resentful and angry. I began to choose decisions that made me act differently than honoring my true, authentic self. I chose to honor everyone else’s boundaries. I placed my boundaries to the side.

At times I knew I was choosing compromising decisions and cross- ing the boundaries that were best for me. I would either justify these decisions or create my own reasons for doing what I did to get ahead in life. Over time, it started to have a toll on me.

Then one day I realized I was selling out. I was selling out for others. I was selling out to achieve more. I was selling out for the external world. I was selling out for what worked best for me. I was selling myself short of my own magnificence.

I share this with you because I was chasing and living an illusion. I was chasing after things and living externally—chasing, com- peting, and conquering my perception of the “American Dream.”

Many times in my adult life, I was living what most would call the “American Dream.” I thought having money, multiple homes, multiple cars, and material things would provide me happiness. I found it satisfying that I could set goals and achieve them. It was refreshing to accomplish all of this. I found that I welcomed the compliments I received for achieving all this. All ego!

I began to chase having more, as if it were a drug. Why? I chose to have more than one car, one home, one watch, one more this and one more that. I became an addict of chasing and having more stuff. I had to have more than just one of something. I had to have the latest and greatest.

Many of my friends and associates would comment on how great it would be to be me. They were happy for me in my successes. They recognized the accomplishments I had achieved and the challenges I had overcome.

One evening at home, I came to realize I was actually extremely unhappy. I was unhappy with my external world, and I began to look at how unhappy I was within.

While others saw greatness and accomplishment, I saw a sell- out. While others saw success, I saw failure. Externally I looked great. Internally I was a feeling like a complete mess.

I began to wonder how I could have so much externally and be so empty inside. At this point in my life, I had spent the better part of my adulthood chasing the external world and ignoring living in my internal world.

Then I started to seek out how I was able to live within my truest, most authentic self. I started to listen to my internal voice. I real- ized then that I was choosing to live my life being less than the best that I am. I had a thirst and hunger to also find out how to be the best that I am and live within my own truth.

I learned what worked best for me and to seek the boundaries that best suited me. I started understanding what truly worked for me in my life and using it for creating my own happiness. The more I looked within, the louder my inner voice and spirit started to speak to me. They began to tell me what was best for me. More importantly, I listened, and I started choosing the right course of action for me.

Over time, I began to release my resentments, my hurts, and my anger. I began to allow my feelings to be open and alive. I began to forgive others. I began to forgive myself. I became more aware. I started to truly live again.

It was a rebirth of who I am, my authentic self. Each and every day, I am faced with the choices of honoring my true, authentic self. The more I have focused upon honoring myself, the easier it has been for me to choose what is best for me and to hear and listen to my inner self. I found what works for me, and now I honor it.

Are you asking yourself if there is an alternative or a different way to live or be? Being authentic requires the courage to face your personal truth. When you are authentic, you are being true to your innermost self. When you go on your authentic journey, you begin to leave behind the tension of being who you think other people want you to be.

This leads to knowing who you are and being true to it. It releases positive energy and enables you to achieve the deep- est goals, dreams, aspirations, and ambitions that may have been suppressed from childhood. Authentic transformation focuses your energy on what you choose to have and to avoid areas of unwanted compromise in your life.

Living authentically, in its simplest terms, is living in your truth. Warriors understand and honor this truth. Living authentically brings out your truth in your heart, soul, and your authentic center. It allows you to be guided by divine truth and wisdom each and every day. It is living your greatest and most authentic life in the world. It is joyfully creating and living your highest purpose.

You are living an authentic life when you fashion a life where the decisions and actions you create are deliberate and in harmony with what is important for you. Focus on what is honoring you. What is honoring yourself? It is simply doing what you know is best for yourself. You feel it in your gut, you feel it in your spirit, and you know that what you are choosing for yourself is what is best for you.

Others may choose to disapprove with your choices or offer suggestions about what is right for you. However, it is your life to live, and it is a life that you know in your soul is right for you. It is a life that causes you to welcome each day with passion, enthusiasm, and excitement.

Your original conditioning will help you be authentic. So how do you be authentic? You reclaim that child in you. Remember when you woke up as a child, happy with anticipa- tion for the day? Remember the joy you experienced in having your friends over? Remember your parents’ mixed reaction, when you blurted out some delightfully honest, blunt truth? Remember how you knew exactly what you wanted to be when you grew up?

Reclaim the authentic inner child in you.

Being authentic simply means being genuine. It means being the true author of your life. It means adhering to your own code of morals and values. It also means staying clear of the drama, chaos, and stress of others. It means being original, being complete, and honoring yourself. It is simply being you.

As you grow, you naturally question authority or the status quo. You have curiosity and the desire to understand how the world works. At some critical point, it is driven home to you that for you to get along in the world, you must sometimes withhold your opinions, listen to your elders, deny what you see and hear, lie low, or even lie. Each of us is born into a family or a situation that already has a code and a belief system that works to some degree.

You are told what you are unable to do or cannot do versus what you are able to do. You are molded by the external world, telling you how you should behave, look, or have. You begin the process of placing a lot of your feelings, beliefs, opinions, self- criticisms, pain, fear, disappointments, humiliations, anger, lack of acceptance, and feelings of distrust and abandonment in your very own closet. You have the idea that maybe it will all go away or you will sort it out later. Unfortunately, as all of this begins to pile up, you tend to lose your shining magnificence. Your bright light begins to dim. You begin to get off course and start to lose your true, authentic self.

No one prepared you for this. You were told that if you kept your head down and worked hard, you would enjoy the fruits of your labor. Having worked hard and having lived with the pressures from others and life in general, the questions remain: How am I able to live such a life? What steps am I able to choose toward simply being me? What is my life’s purpose? What am I actually meant to be doing? How am I able to main- tain my lifestyle and find happiness? The answer lies in your own personal authentic transformation.

Are you ready?