Uncovering the Real You....Who Are You ?

This past week I thought a lot about uncovering the real me. Many of us seem to go through life living a life we designed for ourselves, adding this and that for the reasons of looking good or trying to get that "wow" factor going in the way others see us. Think about the things you do mainly for the "wow factor". For instance, you really don't enjoy sewing that much but you love when you get that "wow" response when someone sees what you have done. Same might be for baking or cooking. My sister and I have often had the conversation about our baking. We like to bake, but go way overboard at the holidays just to get the reaction from others. Its not that baking is our true passion or even our mission. We do it to get some bit of acclaim and fame.
The same might be true for the way you dress....you could be dressing like a biker or a plain person, not from the heart or some deep conviction, but to get the response it brings. I know one woman that absolutely hated cleaning house, but went at it as if it was the most important job in the world, not because she liked a spotless house but she loved the comments people made about being able to eat off her floor it was so clean etc. This need to clean for the response became an obsession with her and she is now in counselling. It got out of hand for her, became how she saw herself, became her identity. I feel that way about quilting. I don't really enjoy the hand quilting part of it, but love being able to say I quilt. Love hearing the ooooohhhhs and aaawwws over what I made. I seem to want to have that as part of my identity even though its not the real me.
Now all things are not this way in our lives. There are things we love, we feel strongly about, might even be a conviction and those things are part of the real us. I love healthy eating, its part of me. I like how I feel when I eat good, I like talking about health, about natural remedies etc. It is the real me. I also like wearing jeans and flannel shirts, that is the real me. But often times I feel invisible wearing what 99% of the population seems to wear these days. So I set about trying to be convicted about wearing dresses or skirts. I don't really feel that way, its not really a conviction. I know God looks on the inside and He is the only one I am trying to please. If some man has lust in his heart, it ain't my problem if seeing a woman in pants gets to him. There are weirdos out there that enjoy seeing children for the wrong reasons but no one stops having children for that reason.
There are women out there that go after the "wow factor" that soon they are just like a character on Desperate Housewives. Facades, and trying to live for appearances and seeking the "wow factor" at a cost of loosing who they really are.
I guess my point for me is, and this is for me, thoughts written out for me, thinking out loud sort of speaking, the point is, learn to like the real you and live according to your convictions, rather than trying to please the masses by picking out a look, a life, hobbies, dress, lifestyle that you really don't believe in but that gets a response that makes you feel important.
We have some friends that spend all their time living off grid, not because they believe its better for them, but because it gets the "wow factor" comments every time someone hears about it. The wife is burning out, the husband is angry at home and not a very nice person but oh they think everyone is just in awe of them....however, the old saying, "you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time" is so true. The reality of life is, we are far more transparent in time to others than we can even see ourselves. That is the foundation of most gossip. People seeing the real us, while we continue to play some part, hoping for the response we want.
Think about your life....what do you really believe ? What things do you honestly enjoy doing ? What is your motivation for your lifestyle ? Do you dress for the benefit of compliments or "oh look at me" or do you dress out of conviction without any need of recognition ? Do you collect things because you love them or to be able to say, "I have 15 of those" ?
I think....and this is all rather new to me, this honest looking at myself, I think in time, being real with myself is going to be very freeing. For all my life I have lived as an overachiever, and a people pleaser. Doing things for others to lessen their suffering is good, but you are smart enough readers to know that is not what I am talking about here. Does your talk match the real you ? If you took away all the need for recognition for what you do, what sort of things would you be pursuing ?