Be yourself is terrible advice if you read it as an excuse to thoughtlessly act on every impulse. That's not what being authentic means. It's unfortunate that t

Be yourself is terrible advice if you read it as an excuse to thoughtlessly act on every impulse. That's not what being authentic means. It's unfortunate that the author fails to provide even a loose definition. High self-monitors aren't necessarily being inauthentic, and low self-monitors aren't necessarily being authentic. They simply have different strategies and preferences for navigating the social landscape. Being yourself in this context is to me more about having a certain resilience to social responses -- being confident and without remorse with your words and actions, because they're grounded in your beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour. Just because you're being authentic doesn't mean everybody will like what you're saying or doing. But if you're authentic you can take it or leave it and keep going.