Be true to yourself

Be true to yourself; Be faithful to your ideas, your beliefs, what you need, what you want, what you desire, to your own aspirations, even if they are different from other people. In this sense, sometimes it is difficult to follow one’s own convictions, especially when what we think and/or feel does not coincide with what the majority of people around us expect.

Thus, When our own conviction goes against and/or is different from that of other people, we may have doubts about whether our beliefs They are adequate. Or perhaps we find it difficult to express them or carry out that activity that we would like to do so much because we conform to expectations or the norm. That is, for example, how am I going to tell my friends that what we have been doing all our lives is not pleasant to me and that I would prefer to change it?

Do we follow social norms?

Social norms, according to Bicchieri, are the result of the interactions of individuals and should be understood as a kind of grammar of social interactions. So, like a grammar, a system of norms specifies what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in a society or group.

Likewise, Émile Durkheim, in his work The rules of the sociological method, defines social norms with the concept of social fact, which refers to any behavior or idea present in a social group. According to the author, the social fact exercises a coercive power over people’s behavior, molding them and predisposing them to behave and think in a certain way.

In short, social norms govern our behavior, what we have to do and define the how, when, where and why of our behavior from a social point of view. Although it is true that rules are fundamental for all human beings, it is necessary to follow common guidelines and, at the same time, feel that we belong to a group, Not all social norms have to be met: we can also distance ourselves from the common norm.

Be true to yourself in a world full of social norms

Being true to oneself means taking a stand for our own convictions and beliefs. Now, does being true to yourself mean abandoning social norms? Well, Self-fidelity is totally compatible with following the rules and is also healthy. Could we live in a world without following any common rules or patterns?

It is clear that common social patterns have their function and reason. The standards do not have to be fulfilled by everyone in the same way, but, on the contrary, We can live together under certain common patterns… but without abandoning what identifies us, what we believe in.

The key is in self-knowledge

Being faithful to yourself is part of self-knowledge, because we cannot be faithful without knowledge: We need to know what we are like, what worries us, what our tastes and aspirations are in order to be faithful to ourselves.. In this sense, answering certain questions can bring you closer to that self-knowledge: what do I do? What do I think? What do I feel? What do I really want?

At the same time, self-knowledge can bring you closer to parts of yourself that at this moment you don’t quite understand. Perhaps it can bring you closer to parts of yourself that are not socially accepted and, therefore, it is difficult for you to bring them out and/or accept them, since it is not what you know as “common.” Or there is the possibility, among many others, that you want to impose certain beliefs on yourself so as not to distance yourself from custom.

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