Be your best self.

Your Authentic Self vs Your Best Self

Your Authentic Self vs Your Best Self
Carly Jacobs

Firstly, what’s the difference between your Authentic Self and Your Best Self?

Your Authentic Self is what comes naturally to you and your Best Self is what you do to become a better version of yourself.

For example, your Authentic Self might like to sit around on the couch, eating pizza every night and watching reality TV because you couldn’t be bothered finding something better to watch. Your Best Self would go for a walk after work, cook a healthy dinner, clean up afterwards and watch a fabulous TV show you really enjoy, instead of wasting your evening.

The pursuit of self-improvement is basically trying to get your Best Self to kick your Authentic Self’s lazy ass.

authentic self

For example, my Authentic Self bloody loves a bit of gossip. If you have a secret, my Authentic Self is practically pissing her pants with excitement. Pour her a glass of wine and start dishing immediately. My Best Self, tries to keep her nose out of other people’s business and is fully aware that gossiping is not very nice, kind or in keeping with the type of person I want to be.

My Authentic Self loves sleeping in on cold, frosty winter mornings. My Best Self gets up, drags on my gym gear and gets me in the car because my Best Self knows I’m going to have a far better day if I get up and get my workout out of the way.

My Authentic Self really wants to keep the $20 in change the cashier at the supermarket accidentally gave me. My Best Self knows that giving it back will save the poor check out kid from getting in trouble at the end of his shift for being down $20.

If your Authentic Self keeps sabotaging your Best Self, this week’s podcast is for you.

This week on Straight & Curly, Kelly and I talking about Authentic Selves vs Best Selves and how we make sure our Best Selves win… most of the time.

Extra reading 

5 Things Productivity Masters Do Every Day 

The Top 5 Weekend Habits of Super Productive People

How to Work Harder and Faster 

5 Insanely Useful Productivity Tools for Insanely Busy People

The 5 Best Apps To Turn You Into A Productivity Ninja

What does your Best Self try to fix in your Authentic Self? Which one usually wins?

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10 Comments

  1. Reannon 6 years ago

    My best self tries to eat healthy, go to sleep early & stay off her phone as much as possible. My authentic self wants to drink a can of coke every lunch, stay up late reading & likes to read celeb gossip on dodgy websites on her phone. My best self never feels jealous when other people’s lives run smoothly & they’ve got it all together. My authentic self feels jealous & wonders where I’ve gone wrong so that I’m not one of those people!
    Off to listen now 🙂

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 6 years ago

      It’s such a great exercise to try to get in touch in what your true motivations are. And being honest is the first step in improving all that stuff we don’t like about our Authentic Selves. 🙂

  2. Michaela 6 years ago

    My Authentic self forgets to eat, would rather stay up until the wee hours reading trashy fanfics, and stick her nose up at the almost established Pilates routine my Better Self is desperate for. My Better Self wants a more healthy and consistent diet and to actually go to bed at a decent hour so as to not be a zombie at work the next day.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 6 years ago

      My Authentic Self NEVER forgets to eat. I wish I forget to eat! 🙂 Getting to bed on time is a constant struggle especially if you’re a natural night owl and it sounds like you are.

  3. Jess Carey 6 years ago

    Ohh I love this SO much! I’ve never really thought about it in terms of “best” vs “authentic” but that’s exactly what the war that’s going on in my head is all about!

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 6 years ago

      It’s like the angel and the devil sitting on your shoulder and pulling you in different directions isn’t it?

  4. KezUnprepared 6 years ago

    I love this! I think sometimes I see people using their ‘authentic’ self as an excuse for being a pretty crappy person (I’ve seen it on blogs etc too). Yes, we should acknowledge our authentic selves, but I think we should always be growing and striving to live our lives as our best selves!

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 6 years ago

      Absolutely! Like ‘My Authentic Self is late all the time’. Cool, why not try working on fixing that?

  5. Missy D 6 years ago

    My Authentic Self is definitely in the driver’s seat at the moment – doing very little exercise and wanting to order Thai takeaway… but my Best Self is doing it’s best to take over. 😉

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 6 years ago

      It’s a constant battle! My Authentic self wants a lot of sleep right now but my Best Self is limiting me to 8 hours per night. 🙂

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