Halloween is upon us and if you have grade school age kids you know get to hear about all of the different costumes your kid wants – a bumble bee, a princess, a pirate, a zombie, and the list goes on and is ever changing.
As I child, I only remember a few costumes that were the full on, head to toe, mascot type suit. They were hot and sweaty, I couldn’t see clearly with the mask on and I often tripped over some piece of the costume taking out many of my friends who were walking close to me.
The cool thing about Halloween though, is that pretty much no matter the costume, the end result is the same…a bag, or in my day a pillow case, full of candy.
Interestingly enough, some adults wear costumes every day. People who are accountants by career but artists by hobby, or heavy handed driver type project managers at work but take a completely different approach to projects outside of work.
For me, I have worn the engineering costume, focused on tasks and suppressing extroverted and emotion based tendencies but am actually a people oriented, extroverted, expressive coach .
The truth about wearing the full-on costume, figuratively or literally, is that it takes much more energy to wear a costume than to be authentic. You vision isn’t clear and you trip over yourself in the thoughts and actions you take. You can even make others stumble with you in your lack of authenticity along the way.
Please hear me that I am not suggesting that people are single dimensional or can only have one trait that is their authentic self. The truth is we are all multidimensional and have many traits that are expressed at various levels throughout our day and in each experience.
I propose that we all become aware of who we are, what drives us and where our interests lie. That we accept all aspects of ourselves and commit to sharpening skills and smoothing out the rough spots. And, look at where we can utilize each of the authentic traits we have and express them at the time and situation that serves us best.
Let’s reserve the costumes for Halloween and live as our authentic selves every other day of the year!
What costume are you willing to no longer wear?
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