Episode Transcript

What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to THE a.m guys. Welcome back to five minute rants.

So when I was about six years old, I had a best friend. His name was also Michael, and I have a vivid memory of being outside his house. Is a beautiful day, going over there and playing, and we were playing basketball, and he was great at basketball. I was not good at basketball. And I remember talking with him, and he had brought up a movie he had seen. And he was like, Oh, this movie was amazing. And I was like, oh, yeah, that’s such a great movie. It was, it’s, I love that movie. And then he asked me, Hey, do you remember this happening in the movie? And then I was like, Yeah, I totally remember that happening in the movie. And I was like, that’s, like, one of my favorite parts. And they looked at me as like, that was never in the movie. And then we paused, and it got really awkward.

And the point of that is, is, when I was younger, six or seven, one of the things I wanted to do was be liked, and I wanted to be relatable, and I wanted to be able to fit in. And as a result of that, I lied to my best friend at the time, and it hurt our relationship. And the point of why I’m saying this is this it’s not worth trying to relate to everybody or fit in. It’s worth you being you, and it’s worth being authentic. It’s worth you being authentic, it’s worth you being real.

And I think it’s so important to know that you’re going to be you, and honestly, when it comes to fitting in, you’re not going to fit in and be exactly like everybody else, because the truth is, no one is exactly like anybody else, and we’re also vastly different. And we have a lot of things in common. All people have a lot of things in common, right? But you being you and who you are so important. And it’s important not to change predicated on who you’re around. And it’s important not to change predicated on what social circle you’re in, or what group you’re in right now, or what friend you’re seeing and talking to. It’s important for you to be you and to be consistently you in all areas.

I’ve talked often times about who you are behind closed doors really matters when nobody’s around. Who are you? What type of person are you? It’s interesting because you watch the internet and the phenomena of them and how people can hide behind the anomity. I guess that’s how you say that word. But the anonymousness of the internet, right? You can be totally anonymous, and they hide behind that. And I think it’s important not to do that. It’s so important not to hide, and it’s so important to just you, be you, and everybody, at some point in their life goes through similar struggles, go through similar challenges and trials. Everybody has them. Everybody has got to face these things in their lives. But it’s just a choice for you to be you, and you get to decide that, and you get to decide to be real, and you get to decide to be who you are.

I think it’s important to make the decision to do that and not to make the decision that I did at a young age, which was, that’s my favorite part in the movie, to be liked and to fit in, and then, as a result, it actually helped me fit less in. And so often times when we go around the wrong way to achieve the result we want, it actually ends up being the long way around the mountain when we think it’s a shortcut, and then it also honestly hurts normally what we’re trying to do and achieve. And that’s how anything is in life, there’s a process and principles for how to move forward and how to move forward the way that it was made to happen, and to have healthy relationships with people and and to actually have friendships with people, lying is not part of that process, and it’s not part of that way.

I think it’s really important to see that when it comes down to you being you, it’s going to be one of the most important decisions you’re going to make in your life. Hey, this is who I am. These are the things I like. This is how I am, and it doesn’t matter. And if things get pointed out that are not great character traits, okay, cool. That’s awesome. You get to work on them. Now, if things are pointed out and celebrated like, Oh, this is awesome, part of your character is like this. And you get to be that person of character, and you’re not sacrificing your character for other people. Awesome. Now you are celebrated, but then you also get to move forward more.

I think it’s it’s common to everybody to want to hide, it’s common to everybody to want to hide. It’s common to everybody not want to be seen. And that’s a universal and it’s a universal decision. You look at all, all the just you look at life, and when children grow up, me growing up, and you watch that process go through my life, in other people’s lives, of, you know, being a child, and who am I in and finding my identity, and then having to choose to be real and to embrace and love myself for who I am and how I am, from looks to personality to skills to gifting, it’s universal to everybody.

And the point of what I’m trying to say is stop trying to fit in and just be real and you just be you. Anyways, guys, I’ll catch you later. Peace.