The Authenticity Challenge: 21 Days to a More Content Life

By Sarah Heath

FOMO, the fear of missing out, isn’t new. But today, social media makes us increasingly more aware of the fun, interesting, and enjoyable activities that others are experiencing. We yearn for the lives we assume others are already living.

Through insights gained through her own journey toward contentment, author Sarah Heath found the answer to overcoming these feelings is to live an authentic life. Rather than longing for and chasing after somebody else’s life, you have to show up completely to your own life with honesty and courage.

In The Authenticity Challenge, Sarah invites you to embrace authenticity in three key areas of your life: vocation (the What), relationships (the Who), and faith (the Why). Over the course of 21, days you will be guided through seven daily challenges each week related to one of these areas.

Take the challenges on your own or combine with the DVD featuring Sarah in 8-10 minute video segments designed for small group discussion. Additionally, leader helps found in the book make sharing group study easier, allowing you to share your experience with others and encourage one another as you grow in authenticity.

Being authentic in all areas of your life allows you to see how uniquely beautiful your story is. It enables you to be grateful for who you are. And it empowers you to move toward a more content life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Mar 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781501882678

Sarah Heath

Sarah is both an RCVS and an EBVS® European Veterinary Specialist in Behavioural Medicine, as well as a Certified Clinical Animal Behaviourist. She was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in recognition of her work in establishing behavioural medicine as a veterinary discipline.

Book preview

THE

Authenticity

CHALLENGE

The Authenticity Challenge:

21 Days to a More Content Life

The Authenticity Challenge

978-1-5018-8266-1

978-1-5018-8267-8 eBook

The Authenticity Challenge DVD

978-1-5018-8268-5

Also from Sarah Heath

What’s Your Story? Seeing Your Life Through God’s Eyes

THE

Authenticity

CHALLENGE

21 DAYS TO A MORE CONTENT LIFE

SARAH HEATH

The Authenticity Challenge

21 Days to a More Content Life

Copyright © 2019 Abingdon Press

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, TN 37228-1306 or e-mailed to [e-mail].

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data has been requested.

978-1-5018-8266-1

Scripture quotations are taken from the Common English Bible, copyright 2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted (NRSV) are taken from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org/

Scripture quotations noted (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

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MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

A Little Intro and Confession

Week One: The Who

Week Two: The What

Week Three: The Why

Conclusion

Leader Helps

Notes

A LITTLE INTRO AND CONFESSION

It took me way too long to write this introduction. Why? Because I wanted it to be right. I wanted to draw you, the reader, in. I wanted you to like me, to think I was endearing, smart, funny, and that I had something worthy to share. I wanted you to be impressed by my expertise and experience. I wanted to give you a rundown of my credentials, since this is more of a lifestyle book and less of a theological or academic creation, where I would feel more at home. I was tempted to legitimize myself before inviting you to hop into this authenticity business with me. Even before I sat down to put my hands to the keyboard, I already had some trepidation about sharing these challenges with you! I wanted to use this introduction to smooth everything out, so I took a very long time trying to perfect it. Ironic, isn’t it? When I started to write a book about authenticity, my immediate instinct was to hide and lean on a carefully crafted version of myself.

The truth is, I have spent a great deal of time thinking, writing, and speaking about authenticity and the elusive experience of contentment. But when it came time to write a book on the subject, I had a weird, almost primal resistance to it, a reaction that some would call imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is our fear that people will discover that we really aren’t capable of what people think we are capable of. We gain real expertise, but we feel like we’re just faking it, and any minute now somebody is going to figure out that we’re a fraud. That feeling hit me so hard it almost paralyzed me. My inner voice said, Wait, I can’t write about authenticity; people will be able to tell that I struggle being in my own skin.

I think if we are honest (which we should be), we’ll admit that wanting to hide is usually our first response to being asked to be authentic. I find myself tempted to conceal my true self not just with the people around me, but even with God. I am a pastor who believes that God is in all things and already knows who we are, so it’s funny that I would subconsciously try to present a false self to the Divine. But still, I want to be seen in my Sunday best!

Why are we so afraid of authenticity? Our aversion to this kind of genuineness comes, at least in part, from generations of societal programming that tells us we should always put our best foot forward and only show what we want people to see. I spent many years living in the South, and one of my favorite phrases I picked up there was You don’t show your ugly. In other words, keep your flaws to yourself and let people see you at your best. But research has begun to show us that to live fully integrated, healthy lives, we need to be authentic. We need to let our true selves, warts and all, be seen more often. As author Lori Deschene says, Find the courage to be authentic. Not everyone will like you, but no one can if they don’t get a chance to know you.¹ The truth is, that doesn’t just apply to other people; it applies to us. We must know ourselves to like ourselves. We cannot just like the shiny selves we present to other people. We have to learn to love even our shadow self and to thank that shadow self for what it is trying to teach us. The goal of all of this work (and it is work!) is to find contentment and peace with your own life as it is, even right now in process. Sound impossible? I thought it was too! But learning to be authentic and content even in this tension has given me a new way to look at my life.

Authenticity is a buzzword. From boardrooms to Bible studies, everyone seems to be talking about being authentic. Everywhere you turn, people are challenging you to be your real self. The days of trying to maintain a sense of perfection and keeping up with the Joneses are hopefully starting to wane. For many of us, that has meant we are desperately trying to become acquainted with our true selves. Only after we are acquainted with our true selves can we try to introduce our true selves to those around us. But it isn’t easy. From Facebook to Instagram, our ability to curate our own life in pictures and clever captions tempts us to move away from the hard work of being our authentic selves. We want to be authentic, but we work hard at image management—much as I wanted to write about authenticity and lead with my credentials and experience instead of my real self!

Into this cultural dichotomy, I want to offer this twenty-one-day challenge. This challenge is an opportunity to try on authenticity as a way of life, just for twenty-one days, and see how revolutionary it is to take off the mask we wear not just in front of ourselves, but