What mask are you wearing?  What persona do you present to the world?

Everyone knows of Marilyn Monroe.  She was the sex symbol of all sex symbols, and she is still an easily recognized symbol of beauty today.  A friend of Marlyn told a story of how the two of them were out and about one day walking down the street.  This woman knew Marilyn from the days before she was famous, and the two of them were happily enjoying a day with no distractions.  Marilyn was not wearing any make-up, she wore a head scarf to cover her head, and surprisingly, they were able to walk down the street unnoticed.

As they walked, Marilyn turned to her friend and asked, “Do you want to see her?”

“See who?” her friend asked.

“Her,” Marilyn replied.

Marilyn took off her head scarf, shook her head, lifted her gaze and looked around at no one in particular.  Like a spell had been cast, people started doing double-takes as they walked past them.  People started crossing the street to get a closer look.  A crowd started forming, and people searched frantically in their purses and pockets for a piece of paper and something to write with in an attempt to get an autograph.  With a flip of a switch, Marilyn had arrived on the scene.

We all have the ability to flip the switch.  Take a moment to reflect: Do you worry more about what other people think, or about what YOU think when you decide how you present yourself to the world?  Now, I am not talking about how we present ourselves on a job interview, or when we meet new people at a party.  What I am talking about are the masks we wear when we want to portray ourselves in a way that we think others will approve of us; the masks we wear when we are more concerned about other people’s approval than about being our authentic self.

Now ask yourself, are you putting on masks to be what other people want to see?   It is very liberating to know that we have control of that switch.  You can be whomever you want to be, so don’t worry.  The interesting thing is, out of all the personas you can choose, the best person you can be is yourself.  There is no one quite like you, and when you are yourself, you will always get the call back after the audition!