Be Yourself.

Please.

For the love of whatever higher power you believe in—or don’t—just be yourself. Stop trying to be an edited version of yourself.
Or whatever weird incarnation our society expects you to be.

Recently, I was listening to a podcast about young leadership. And I was all in.

• Four-day workweeks? Yes.
• Pushing back against hustle culture? YES. (Hustle culture is seriously stupid.)
• Talking about real work/life balance and authentic leadership? YES.

And then... they ruined it.

They started talking about the “challenge” of bringing your whole self to work.
About how hard it is to know “how much of yourself” to show—especially when you're "in charge."

Kid, you had me for about 90% of the way.

Then you went and made me sad.

Because here's the answer to this huge, complex, MBA-worthy problem:

Be yourself.
All the time.
No matter what.
No matter who you're with.
No matter what role you're in.

Why would you need to edit yourself? Are you unhappy with who you are?

(For reference: I am extremely happy with who I am and love myself dearly. I'd be loath to cut pieces out just to "fit in" somewhere.)
Maybe it’s because I grew up on things like Free to Be… You and Me—shoutout to Marlo Thomas.

But seriously—what are you afraid of by being yourself?

You can't actually be anything else.
You can only fake it.
You can only waste energy pretending.

And suddenly, it hit me:
This is why office culture feels like a bad community theater production.
Everyone’s playing dress-up. Everyone’s wearing hats.
(And I hate the phrase “we wear a lot of hats.” You know who wears a lot of hats? The late Queen of England. And ACTORS.)

Here’s the thing:

If we’re actually trying to do something, why are we all acting?
Be yourself.

Be Yourself.

Please.

For the love of whatever higher power you believe in—or don’t—just be yourself. Stop trying to be an edited version of yourself.
Or whatever weird incarnation our society expects you to be.

Recently, I was listening to a podcast about young leadership. And I was all in.

• Four-day workweeks? Yes.
• Pushing back against hustle culture? YES. (Hustle culture is seriously stupid.)
• Talking about real work/life balance and authentic leadership? YES.

And then... they ruined it.

They started talking about the “challenge” of bringing your whole self to work.
About how hard it is to know “how much of yourself” to show—especially when you're "in charge."

Kid, you had me for about 90% of the way.

Then you went and made me sad.

Because here's the answer to this huge, complex, MBA-worthy problem:

Be yourself.
All the time.
No matter what.
No matter who you're with.
No matter what role you're in.

Why would you need to edit yourself? Are you unhappy with who you are?

(For reference: I am extremely happy with who I am and love myself dearly. I'd be loath to cut pieces out just to "fit in" somewhere.)
Maybe it’s because I grew up on things like Free to Be… You and Me—shoutout to Marlo Thomas.

But seriously—what are you afraid of by being yourself?

You can't actually be anything else.
You can only fake it.
You can only waste energy pretending.

And suddenly, it hit me:
This is why office culture feels like a bad community theater production.
Everyone’s playing dress-up. Everyone’s wearing hats.
(And I hate the phrase “we wear a lot of hats.” You know who wears a lot of hats? The late Queen of England. And ACTORS.)

Here’s the thing:

If we’re actually trying to do something, why are we all acting?
Be yourself.