In 1949, New Statesman ran a quirky challenge.

The magazine asked its readers to write a couple of paragraphs parodying the style of any novelist with the name Green or Greene.

The English writer and journalist Graham Greene spotted this challenge and decided to have some fun.

So he wrote a few sentences and submitted a parody of himself under a pseudonym.

The result?

When New Statesman announced the prizes, Graham Greene had come in second.

Turns out Greene wasn’t the most convincing Greene on the block.

You might’ve heard the following phrase:

Sometimes others know us better than we know ourselves

If Graham’s escapade is anything to go by, the opposite is true.  

No-one knows us better than we do.

Sure – others might know our habits and behaviours pretty well.  They might have a sense of what motivates us, or even be able to predict what we’re going to do before we do it.

But habits and behaviours have nothing to do with who we are.  They’re just our habits and behaviours.

Who we are comes before these. 

It comes before our name, our jobs and any other labels we've grabbed hold of.

It comes before our behaviours, actions & habits.

And, for that matter, it comes before everything else we’ve picked up along the way.

Like, for instance, our thoughts.

Whatever I'm thinking, and despite how quickly or slowly these thoughts come & go, who I am does not change.

i.e. there is a “me” which exists separately to the thoughts I’m having in any moment.

Same thing with feelings too.

Even though my feeling are always changing, the “me-ness” of me always stays the same.

And when you strip away all the variables and see what remains, you get down to the nuts & bolts of who we are beneath and before all the variables.

You get to the constants.  The real us.  The part of us that no-one else knows better than we do.

One of the joys of the last 12 months (and my 7 month coaching training in particular) has been getting more and more familiar with this part of me.

Why?

Because the more familiar I am with who I am, the more often I can be myself.

So when my to-do list is overflowing …when I’ve only had 4 hours sleep…when I need to have a difficult conversation…when I’ve got a banging headache…when I’m standing up to speak in front of a room full of people…or when I’m in a new social situation…

I know, more than ever, that I can still be myself.

If you like the idea of being yourself more often too:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

Have a great weekend.

 - Tom