Latest / Wanzology / To Thine Own Self Be True!
Transcript
- To Thine Own Self Be True Dah-Dum!! Bah-Dat Bah-Dum!! Bah-dop bah bah Dop-bah dop bop bop!!!! Yo, what's going on? Welcome! Welcome! Welcome to another episode of WANZOLOGY!! I am your host, The Wanz!! What's going on? You good? How your mama do? What's up with your cousin? Ah, yeah, I'm a little crazy. But that's, uh, that's part of my charm. I hope that you are enjoying this existence that you have, uh, put yourself through. Remember, your best thinking got you exactly where you are right now. I don't know if that's good or bad. Not for me to decide. What I do know is that in this week's episode, I went back to an old theme that I used to swear by way, way back in the day. It's a quote by William Shakespeare from Hamlet, Act I, Scene III, spoken by Polonius: "This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." To thine own self be true. What the heck does that mean? In different circumstances, it means different things. The fabulous AI overview says the phrase means “you must act with honesty, integrity, and stay loyal to your own core morals instead of pretending to be someone you are not or caving in to outside pressure.” Not caving in to outside pressure. What does that mean, you might ask? No, you're not asking, I know. If you're wearing a pair of Nike shoes right now, is it because you really like the shoes or because you see them a lot on other people's feet? If you have a BMW, is it because you know that they are number three on the list of cars that are hardest to break into, the three series that is? Or is it because you've seen people that you admire driving that car? I ask these things because we are humans, and humans look around, they see other people, and a lot of times they will be influenced by what they see. Think about it. How many things do you have because you saw somebody else with them and liked it? You liked what they had, and you wanted it. Not very many things, you think? You'd be surprised. How's that hairstyle treating you? How's that hair color treating you? You thought of that all on your own, did you? Or did you see it on someone else and thought it would look great on you? And you are probably right. It does look great on you. Other people may not think so, but who are they to judge? They're not you. There is a prime example of you being true to yourself. You're doing your hair the way you like your hair because you like the way your hair be done the way you want it, ya feel me? So what your hair is purple. So what your hair is green. So what you have no hair like me. So what? If you dig it, you should do it. If it helps you feel more comfortable being yourself (one word). Being yourself (one word), is the big challenge, and at the end of the day, it's the one job. It's the one job you have is to be you, yourself. You can't be nobody else, they're all taken To thine own self be true. Now what does that mean in, let's say, another circumstantial setting, like a party? You go to a party by yourself, and while you're there, you see a lot of people that you know and some people that you don't, and you're, like, mingling around and making casual conversation, and you're having some punch and some hors d'oeuvres, and everything's cool. Everybody's being cool, and all of a sudden, you see that person. That person instantly piques your interest. You are curious about that person, now what? Are you just gonna saunter over and strike up a casual conversation with that person? Are you going to lay back for a little bit to watch and see how that person interacts with other people? Maybe they know people that you already know. Maybe they're flying solo, or maybe they're just out with a wing person, man, woman, you know. So you wait and evaluate, and then you determine that the coast is clear, and you go over and you speak. "Hi, how are you?" The answer is, "Okay." And you carry on the conversation. And as the conversation evolves, you start becoming very interested in this person's point of view about things that you have a point of view about, meaning you have common interests. That's cool! You go and get her a beverage or him a beverage, and you come back continuing the conversation, and as the night goes on, you would really like to maybe not be in the environment that you're in, but since you just met, it's probably not a good idea to ask to, like, go to someplace else, so you collect alternate forms of communication and maybe put forth, “Maybe, maybe, maybe we can get together sometime?” And the answer is affirmative. COOL!! Some time goes by, and you two are by yourselves, and as you keep on talking, reminiscing about the party and what happened between the party and now, you're starting to find that person is attractive, and you don't know if they're attracted to you, but you keep on talking, and you keep on talking, and you let her talk or him talk and when they talk, all of a sudden you get this clue. You get this clue that this person may not have the same relationship with money that you do. Maybe this person has started talking about all the things that they like to buy, all the places they like to go and have been, how many of this they have bought, and where their residence is, I mean, area of town, and it's not near where you are. It's farther uphill where there's a view and costs more money. And then you guys start talking about where you had been before you went to that party and all of a sudden it comes out that this other person got out of a relationship a time ago because that other person that they were with didn't treat them to the things that they thought that they deserved. Things were not purchased in order to prove one's affection. Uh-oh. RED LIGHT! How did Kanye say it? "I ain't saying she a gold digger, but she ain't going out with no broke people." Yep, yep, yep. What then? You have a couple of choices. Are you going to all of a sudden become well-to-do person about town that has endless finances and loves to go out to dinner all the time, and go on weekend trips, and buy nice jewelry or clothes for the person that you are involved with? Are you going to talk about situations you wanted to be in that were exclusive to those who have high incomes? Or are you going to say that, "Yeah, I work a mid-level management job and I still live in an apartment, and I drive a 15-year-old car, and I have a couple of kids, and I've been away from their other parent for more than a few years, but I still see my kids and take care of them"? Are you gonna be that open? Are you gonna be that direct? Are you gonna say exactly who you are? This is the moment that you decide if you will be true to yourself (one word). “To thine own self be true” means that what you have done, you have done. Your accomplishments are your own and nobody, nobody gets to take away your accomplishments. No one gets to diminish how you feel about the lessons that you've learned. No one gets to substitute what you have been through with what you wish you had been through. Your time on this planet is limited. All of ours is. Being true to yourself means you're playing it straight. “This is who I am, and if you don't like it, you can go kick rocks!!” That's it!! I could finish this episode right now! Being true to yourself means being true, honest, loyal to YOUR core morals instead of pretending to be someone you are not! Even if the person of your dreams is sitting across the table from you and you know that level of honesty is gonna cost you. I don't know about you, but I have had the experience of, "Well, maybe if I just kind of hedge here, and I'll just shine this part of my world like this a little bit in order to be more attractive," only to have it come back to bite later, much later, later after more affections have been swapped, feelings are involved, and pain will be inevitable. Honesty is the best policy. That's what they told us when we were kids, right? Honesty is the best policy. So that begs the question, why, as we got older, did we start hedging on honesty? Why did we start trying to be more than we actually were? Answer: because we thought that who we were wasn't enough. Now, if you can relate, you and I have something in common. I've been singing all my life. It's been with me like the nose on my face, and yet at my advanced experience, seasoning, age, I still compare myself to famous singers that people know. I don't sound like them. I wish I could sing as high as Maurice White. I wish I could be as emotive as Luther Vandross. I wish I could be as smooth as Mel Tormé or as sexy as Barry White. But I'm not, I'm The Wanz. I am always going to be The Wanz, and I will sound like I sound, that's about it. I have to be satisfied, and I mean in some way, shape, or form, I am satisfied. Because I am who I am, that put me in a position to experience all my dreams coming true. Could you imagine if I went in to do the audition to get Thrift Shop and I sang it not like Nate Dogg? And they gave that part to somebody else, and somebody else got to take that ride. What would I think then? Not something very good, 'cause it's happened before. Not necessarily in that circumstance, but yeah, I think all of us have been turned down for opportunities, and we walk away feeling like we weren't good enough. We didn't have ‘this’ or ‘that’ or ‘the other thing’, and we lie to ourselves saying that if we had those things, things would be different. More money, perfectly straight teeth, if we didn't have to wear glasses, all sorts of stupid little things!! Being true to yourself means you take all of these things, you take the collective, you take the aggregate of all the experiences you have had in your life, and you show them. You show them and you're proud to show them because they're yours!! I say it a lot. Some people didn't make it this far. You can look at your watch or your whatever at any time of day, and I guarantee you 10 seconds before you did, somebody passed away somewhere in this world. For every moment that you're alive, someone didn't make it this far. You have made it this far based on the things that you've learned, circumstances you've dealt with and gone past. Being true to yourself is easy as long as you don't put who you are comparing to someone else. Know why? You don't know what they've been through. You know what they may have told you. Maybe you know some things that you saw them go through. But the disadvantage is you weren't them. You didn't go through it. You weren't them as they went through it. Two people can have the same experience and feel totally different about it. Don't think so? What do you think about roller coasters? What's a roller coaster that you know you like? How long does it take you to find someone who has ridden the same roller coaster and they don't like it at all? How many people do you know that don't like the same food you like, don't like the same type of music you like, don't like the same color of clothing you like, or hair or whatever? Our uniqueness is the greatest strength that we have. I think we lose the ability... No, not the ability. I think we lose competence on how to accentuate the positive things that make up who and what we are. I think that's a mistake. It goes against, "To thine own self be true." If you love something and that thing that you love makes somebody else happy, never, ever stop doing it. because you never know where it could take you. That was my experience. I sing all the time, ask anybody at the grocery store. What do you do? What do you do to be true to yourself? I challenge you to find two, three, five, ten things that keep you grounded in how you are, how you live your life, how you set your own morals and act with honesty, loyal to your own core morals instead of pretending to be someone you are not, peer pressure be damned. Thank you for listening!! Go out and be you!! Like I said earlier, everybody else is taken, but not you, you special!! You SPECIAL!!! I hope that you be special with me next week!! Peace, Amigo!!!