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My 'How To Be Yourself' Story

by Steve M Nash
(Yorkshire, England)

Be Yourself?

I could have titled my story many things, including any of the following:

"How to be yourself more!"

"How to be yourself, NOW!"

Or even,

"Why you don't wanna be yourself and you never will!"

For, if there's one thing I've dedicated my life to (so far) it's to 'being yourself'. I've come to see many things about the wonders (and pains) of this so-called being yourself-ness.

I know what it looks like. I know what it doesn't look like, too. And, above all, I see all the reasons why being yourself is perhaps the scariest thing in the world for anyone to do. (Oh yes.)

But I only have a short page to explain things, here, so let me cut to the chase with my own 'how to be yourself' story, and I'll try and cover as many 'bases' as I can in the process...

But, first, a powerful 'how to be yourself' inspirational quote that really gets to the heart of the matter:

"It takes courage to grow up and
become who you really are."
-- e e cummins

My 'Be Yourself' Story

Singularly obsessed as I am with 'being yourself' (and, thus, 'how to be yourself') - thinking your own thoughts (and being able to notice when you're thinking someone else's), living by your own values/rules, knowing you don't need to explain yourself, being okay with your imperfect perfect self, and f***ing struggling most of your life to get to this 'nirvana' - I have plenty, plenty stories I could share with you from my journey.

• There's the time a beautiful woman I was badly wooing scolded me, told me to 'Just be yourself!'



• There's the teenage and twenties time it seems everyone and anyone found it oh so easy to laugh at my foolish, naive, open (and vulnerable) ways. (Oh joy!)



• Or there's the (oh so many) times in my life that I just didn't understand why people did the things that they did, when it really wasn't in their character to do that?

But, and part of my journey is how I share my journey (I make no apologies), I'll settle for this (not so funny) story:

Boring John at The Apollo!

Despite a life where a) I didn't seem pre-disposed to laugh a lot and b) most of the time I tried to be funny, people seemingly 'slapped' me down ("You're not that funny!", "You're not as funny as you think!", "Oy, shut it! Shut it now!" - hee!) I decided, by way of public speaking challenge, to do an open mic stand up comedy gig.

The thing is, I've come to understand that everyone is funny - given the opportunity to fully express themselves in a 'safe' environment, anyways. And everyone includes me. And I know, when I relax with someone and just 'go for it', that I can be DAMNED FUNNY!

I also know that funny is in the eye of the beholder. (Curse that beholder! Storing everything - beauty, funny, wise - in its eye!)

Anyway, I wrote myself a 7 minute routine. (I did research on how to write funny lines. And ignored everything I read that didn't agree with my instinctive take on how funny comes into being. Introducing... Steve Roye at KillerStandup.com.)

And then I wrote my routine.

And then I tried to memorise. Memorise. Memoir-ise. Memorex. Memorise!

And then I watched some other acts do their 'open mic' thing.

And then I had a few near miss encounters, where I bottled out a few days before going on stage.

And then.

And then, with the aid of a (comedy) character I've been working on for many years, Boring John, I stood up on stage, I delivered my lines, I forgot my lines, I kicked over my bottle of water, I got some laughs, I got off the stage ("Thank f**k!")

And, for the first time ever, I will publicly share with you my first (and only) attempt at doing open mic stand up comedy. It was on the theme of losing my (open mic comedy) virginity. (Of course it was...)



(Not too shabby, if I say so myself!)

Being Yourself Doesn't Mean Being Funny!

Of course, my doing this open mic comedy thingy isn't a recipe for how to be yourself, necessarily. And it's not about getting out of your comfort zone, either, specifically.

Do you want to know what it is, then, this being yourself?

Quite as simply as I can put it, it's this:

It's allowing yourself to be curious about who you can be, what you will do and think, in each and every NOW moment, with as little thinking to what's just passed as you are able.

Okay, you're right, I can say it simpler:

Be curious about yourself - allow yourself to be surprised by who you are!

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Well, that's my 'how to be yourself' story and I'm sticking with it.

That's where being yourself is at, if you ask me. You frankly have no idea who you are, until the moment arrives for you to experience yourself. You just don't.

And, if you are at all curious about being yourself, about what I've shared above about how to be yourself, well you really could do a lot worse than head over to my sister transformative coaching website, SMNash.com

Why thank you, and "Goodnight!"

Steve

PS On a somewhat related theme, SiteSell have this great resource that can help you discover your inner entrepreneur. Your journey starts with this interesting blog post, called Discover Yourself Through An E-Business