Different people will react differently to you when you live in sincerity. While it is true that many will see you as a fool, some will resent you, and others may even hate you, the few that see who you are as a good thing will make the other reactions worthwhile. Authenticity attracts those worth knowing while repelling those who aren’t worth your energy. However, it is important to recognize that in the face of the shrinking space of options, abundance is not measured in the number of options open to you, but the increased value of those options that remain.
If you are true on the outside to how you are on the inside, you will always find yourself in conflict with those who are not, but, at the same time, you will gravitate towards everyone who is authentic, no matter how different they are to you. The people who appreciate and can benefit from who you really are will self-select, and that filtering is very much a part of the purpose of this world in general and your life in particular.
Relationships that require deceit are not worth having. When you lose the support of those who don’t want you to be yourself, you haven’t lost much. These types will only support you as long as doing so makes them feel better about themselves. Eventually, friendships that are based on you pretending you are something you aren’t will always crumble in when unavoidable eventualities reveal the charade.
The easiest way to avoid the difficulty of terminating relationships based on deceit is to never begin them in the first place. If you are always who you really are, those who don’t appreciate you will avoid you from the outset. This is a wonderful blessing because it frees up your time and resources to meet people who actually like you— something that is increasingly difficult the more time you spend with people who don’t. It’s difficult to meet new people when you are spending all your time with others, and those more likely to be interested in you may be repelled by companions who you aren’t compatible with on more than a superficial level.
Pretending to conform to the expectations of others only works when it isn’t recognize as fake. The people who matter won’t fall for this, and the people who fall for this don’t matter. Those whose opinions matter the most will think poorly of you for fakery, as it shows an immense lack of respect and suggests that the real you is much worse than you pretend to be.
The best people will only be interested in you if you are yourself. The best people seek out those who think for and stay true to themselves, even if they stand alone, not those who agree with them.
If you want to get to know deep people, you’ll first have to reveal yourself to be one. Otherwise, the deep people you invariably meet will pass you over as someone not capable of the depth they, like you, crave. All people who withhold the next increment of themselves from another until that person is worthy of that increment are too guarded, and will never enjoy the relationships with others they would have if they instead decided to dispense the next increment based on worthiness to what has already been given. These people are always lonely and unfulfilled, but remain in their self-inflicted problem by lying to themselves, claiming that they have people in their lives to whom they are open—people who also complain about how closed they are! They claim that they would somehow recognize and open up to “the right people,” without any ability to describe what these conditions would actually be.