Oct '25 • General Discussion
The Courage of True Authenticity: Do Who You Are
I was recently honored with the opportunity to do a literary review of the book ‘Igniting the Primal Flame’, by Dr. Joseph Riggio. As a result, I received (or at least was reconnected with) some valuable insights. The main insight being that True Authenticity requires the courage to forego Being what you do in favor of doing what or rather who you are.
It's a great read for anyone who has anything at all to do with coaching or mentorship at any level. Unlike nearly every other book I’ve read on the topic of personal growth and human potential, like the Jewish Kabballah, it’s less about progress and more about ‘Return’. A return to one’s true self. Before the many voices of those who “Know Better” convinced you to be something other than who you were originally meant to be – You.
In a world obsessed with performance, titles, and external markers of success, the pursuit of authenticity often gets tangled in a web of "doing." We are told to act authentic, to curate our lives for public consumption, as if authenticity is a costume we wear rather than a truth we embody.
Drawing on principles from my own best-selling book ‘Attracting Miracles’, I want to emphasize the power of aligning with one’s inner essence to manifest extraordinary outcomes. And so, in this article I will propose a radical reframe: you are not what you do; rather, you do what you are.
True authenticity flows not from our actions but from the courage to express our intrinsic being, unapologetically and without pretense.
One of the core insights in Attracting Miracles is that miracles—moments of profound alignment with the universe—emerge when we surrender to our authentic selves. You see, our deepest desires and actions are not random but reflections of an inner truth seeking expression. This aligns with the philosophical musings of Søren Kierkegaard, who in The Sickness Unto Death describes authenticity as the process of becoming one’s true self by aligning with the divine spark within. Kierkegaard asserts that, inauthenticity arises from despair, from denying one’s essence in favor of societal roles or expectations.
To be truly authentic is to act in harmony with who you are at your core, not to chase external validation through what you do.
Consider the modern trap or what Jan Ryde in his best seller ‘When Business is Love’ calls, “The Hamster Wheel”: we define ourselves by our careers, achievements, or social media personas. “I am a doctor,” “I am a writer,” “I am a parent.” Yet these are roles, not essences.
I am here to challenge you to reverse the equation.
A doctor heals because he is a healer; a writer creates because she is a storyteller. Our actions are not the source of our identity but the outflow of our being. This perspective echoes the Taoist concept of wu wei, or effortless action, as articulated so beautifully in The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Wu wei is not passivity but action that arises naturally from alignment with one’s true nature. When we are authentic, our doing becomes an unforced expression of that authenticity, like a river carving its path through stone.
But, embracing this truth is provocative and perhaps even disruptive because it demands vulnerability. To do what you are requires stripping away the masks you wear to please others. It means confronting what Carl Jung, in Modern Man in Search of a Soul, calls the “shadow”—the parts of ourselves we hide out of fear or shame. Jung argues that authenticity requires integrating the shadow, acknowledging our flaws and desires as integral to our wholeness.
Miracles, then, are not just external manifestations but internal triumphs: the courage to live as you are, shadow and all, and to let your actions flow from that unfiltered truth.
This idea disrupts the ever so present hustle culture that equates worth with productivity. I used to foolishly announce – “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”, only until I discovered by sleeping in a Hästens Bed that loving a terrific night’s sleep is not something I do, but part of who I am. Sadly it took more than 45 years of estrangement from this part of my soul to come to this realization.
So, then, if you are not what you do, then no amount of doing can fill the void of inauthenticity. Conversely, when you embrace who you are, your actions—whether radical or routine - carry the weight of truth.
Miracles also happen when we stop striving to become and start being.
This is not a call to abandon action but to root it in essence. A great coach, which I unapologetically recognize that I have come to be, is a guide that will inspire effortlessly. Likewise, a leader who is a true visionary will move mountains without force.
The provocation lies in the challenge: dare to know yourself, not as a collection of roles or accomplishments, but as a singular, irreducible being. Dare to let your doing flow from that knowing. As Kierkegaard reminds us, “The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”
True authenticity is not a performance—it is the miracle of living as you were always meant to be.
#authentic #authenticity #aligned #alignment #leadership #mindset #coach #performance #highperformance #mindsetcoach #highperformancecoach #bestlife
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The Courage of True Authenticity: Do Who You Are
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