I remember about 6 years ago when my friend Robert called me up Thursday evening and told me to get dressed we were going out to Pleasure Island. I went into a panic right away and immediately said back, “I am sorry. I can not go. I have nothing to wear.”

 Nothing to wear? I had a closet full of clothes. Even clothes that still had the tags on but I thought I had nothing to wear. Nothing to wear because I wanted people to like me. I wanted to impress people and the right outfit was needed so this could happen. With such short notice, I could spend time shopping for it, buying it and then spending hours deciding if I really liked it (which meant would other people like it).

Robert responded to my nothing to wear statement bluntly as he always does, “Michael. We do not need to impress the people there. They need to impress us.”

 With this statement, my whole perspective was changed. I had been spending my life planning what to wear to impress people who I didn’t even know. I never thought about what I wanted from them. I never thought that no matter how much I impress them, I may not like THEM. That simply being me was impressive enough. Enough for the people I would want in my life. Why would I want people who only liked me for my clothes? I wanted more than that.

I dressed so quickly that night, jumped in the car and headed out. It was one of the best nights I had out because I was just me. And the best part of it all was that people took more noticed of me than ever before because I was real.

 So ask yourself, what do you do tryingto impress people when really all you need to do is be yourself? What could you stop doing now that would free yourself to be you?

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