A few people have asked me recently why I focus less on what people are doing and more on how they’re being.  For me, being comfortable in your own skin is the only foundation for authentic success. Why? Here’s what I said to Adrian Reynolds in an interview with Evolver Talent:

“I think we always do the best we know how to do, based on who we think we are. If we don’t like ourselves, it doesn’t seem to matter what we achieve. We’ll probably think it was a fluke anyway. When I was 19, I was allowed into the House of Commons chamber during recess and I stood behind the dispatch box where ministers and prime ministers usually stand. I only remember feeling terribly uncomfortable. I thought it must be a mistake. I must have misled the MP I was working for; he’d never have arranged it for me if he knew the real me. Who was I to stand where great men and women had stood? I was nothing, nobody. So it could have been a magic moment for me but I walked away feeling even smaller than I had arrived.

I had so many experiences like that around the same time. I did three big interviews on Newsnight before I was 21 – some people would call that an achievement. But if you look back at those clips now, you’ll see an unhappy boy with an affected voice, trying desperately to be something more than he thought he was. I kept waiting for them to realise they’d made a mistake by inviting me. No achievement felt like an achievement. I had hundreds of letters from people saying my campaign had inspired them to live more truthfully, and I thought thank goodness I wore the tight top because that’s the only reason they like me. In hindsight, I laugh. I’m not allowed in the House of Commons chamber these days but I’d love to stand behind that dispatch box and I love being anywhere else in that building and anywhere else in the world. I know who I am and I love myself in a good way. There’s nowhere I can’t be. Success is inevitable now. That’s why I think being is more important than doing.”

You can read the rest of the interview here: Interview with Chris Morris

Thanks to Adrian

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