I’m sure you know someone (Who knows, maybe it’s you!) who just isn’t quite being themselves. You can’t put your finger on it (or maybe you can), but you wonder what it would take to help this person realize his or her true potential.

This thought came to me as we (me, Hubby, and Mom… love you Mom!!) watched the Belmont Stakes horse race on Saturday… more specifically, after the astonishing loss of Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown. Everyone had an opinion about why the stallion, seemingly, just wasn’t himself. His racing style was unusual. The way he responded to the jockey was unusual. And, his last place finishing was absolutely unusual.

Photo by Jim Wood. (CC)

In all this, I felt a sort of burden for the horse as he was expected to live up to this huge name and grandeur that was placed all around him. He, of course, was none the wiser and just probably figured it was another day out on the dirt, but others were stunned because of this overall expectation.

Very simply put, it is important to be who you are no matter what. It can be a daunting task at times especially in work or school (even relationship) dynamics, but how much satisfaction would you get in realizing at the end of the day that you were being true to who you are?

There is so much unending pressure to be so many things, but the truth of the matter is that it takes so much work to be something or someone that you’re not. Try to be the very best that you can be and although there will be continued expectation around you (that’s just the nature of things), the hype isn’t worth losing out on being the very special you.

Have there been times when you felt that being you just wasn’t good enough?… If so, let me know when and what happened next.