Being happy and content in one’s own skin, both at work, at home and with family, should be a goal for everyone. It may be harder than it sounds, though.
Do you always feel how people think you are? Do you have different “personas” for different areas of your life? Do people at work view you one way, and your family another?
I don’t think there is any right or wrong answer necessarily, unless you feel conflicted or dishonest, like the writer of the Boston song “A Man I’ll Never Be.”
He felt that the person he was with viewed him differently than he actually was, and that he could never meet her expectations of who he was or should be.
There is a difference between striving to be someone “better” and “pretending” to be someone you could never actually be. The first is an example of trying to improve oneself; the second is creating a false reality. The latter is where the problems and conflicts come in.
Is there fear that, if you change your behavior to become more at peace with yourself, the people around you won’t like you as much as before? That might be a reasonable fear.
Being introspective and considering of any gap between who you really feel you “are” and how you act with your friends, family and coworkers, can help lead you to a thoughtful answer.
It sure doesn’t hurt to give it a little thought, does it?
