We live in a look-at-me culture. It’s the zeitgeist of both corporate and personal branding. Attention equals followers. Followers equal buzz. Buzz equals popularity.

The trouble is that popularity doesn’t seem to stick the way most would like it to. That’s because we also live in a culture that promotes and praises veneered identities.

Without realizing it, we often choose entertainment over authenticity.

It’s an internal problem too.

The question we find ourselves answering on social media is not, Who am I? but rather, Who do I want others to perceive me to be?

This is the greatest temptation of all. To try and become someone you believe is more acceptable to the world instead of learning how to be who you truly are. This alone is where your one-of-a-kind beauty resides.

There is an artist inside you, capable of unique works of art that can only come from the miraculous combination of spirit and matter you possess.

“Life,” writes Fr. Richard Rohr, “is not a matter of creating a special name for ourselves, but of uncovering the name we have always had.”

Don’t create your new name. Uncover the one that already exists.