The Authenticity Muscle | How Living Authentically Creates True Impact

How authenticity shapes your purpose and why every small act of being real builds the muscle for greater impact.

We live in a world that rewards polish.
The curated version of ourselves - professional, composed, impressive - often feels safer than the real thing.

But authenticity isn’t reckless. It’s refined courage.
And when practiced, it becomes your greatest source of clarity, confidence, and influence.

Throwing Out the Playbook

It was 10:30 a.m. on a Monday. A room full of senior executives sat in front of me and by the end of that session, many of them would be in tears.

That wasn’t the plan. But it became the turning point.

For months, I had tried to fix this team using every strategy in the HR playbook: frameworks, team charters, role clarity, coaching models. None of it touched the deeper issue - disconnection.

So I did something unthinkable: I threw out the playbook.

The night before, I asked my three soccer-playing kids what advice they’d give a struggling team.
Their answers were simple:

• "When we stick to our positions, we score more goals"

• "Sometimes we bump into each other but we don't mean to so we just say sorry and get on with the game"

• "Sometimes you have to pass the ball if you want the team to score".

The next morning, those words, paired with photos of my six- and eight-year-olds, became my slides. Within minutes, tension dissolved. Laughter replaced defensiveness. Truth slipped in through simplicity.

And then came the real moment: vulnerability.

Vulnerability as the Doorway

I invited each leader to share a story, a moment that shaped who they were beneath the title.
I went first. I spoke about my parents’ separation and how I learned, too young, that stoicism often replaces vulnerability.

One by one, they followed. Childhood. Loss. Grit. Becoming.
Every story peeled away another layer of armour until the room felt human again.

That single session did what months of process couldn’t: it rebuilt trust through authenticity.
Not through strategy - through humanity.

The Frequency of Being Real

What happened in that room wasn’t coincidence.
Authenticity changes frequency. When one person shows up real, everyone feels it.

Our nervous systems synchronise, what psychology calls coherence.
It’s the same shift that happens when courage replaces fear. On David R. Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness, authenticity lives beyond courage in acceptance, love, and truth.

That’s why authenticity feels magnetic: it literally lifts the emotional tone of every space you enter.

Research agrees. Studies using the SPANE model show that living authentically increases positive emotions like joy, vitality, and connection while reducing resentment, guilt, and burnout.
Even in challenge, authenticity lets us process cleanly, with honesty, boundaries, and grace.

As Brené Brown reminds us, vulnerability isn’t weakness; it’s the birthplace of love, belonging, and purpose.

Building Your Authenticity Muscle

Looking back, there were two pivotal choices in that story.

First, the decision to show up as myself, not the polished HR professional, but the human behind the role. That single act opened the doorway for transformation.

Second, the realisation that authenticity isn’t one dramatic leap. It’s a practice, a muscle strengthened through small, consistent acts of truth.

At the time, I already sensed my corporate role was no longer my long-term path. But authenticity didn’t require quitting overnight. It simply asked that I bring my real self to the moment I was in. That decision created more impact than any strategy ever had.

Authenticity and Your Design

Over time, I began to see that authenticity isn’t something we create - it’s something we remember.

Tools like Human Design have become one of my favorite ways to guide women back to that remembrance. It’s not about adding another framework or identity; it’s about removing what was never yours in the first place.

Human Design gives language to your natural blueprint - how you’re meant to use your energy, make decisions, and express your purpose.

It’s also your permission slip to be who you already are.

The moment you begin to understand your design, authenticity stops feeling like a performance and starts feeling like coming home. You no longer have to justify your way of being, you simply get to live it.

And perhaps most freeing of all is realising that the path to your true self was never meant to be perfect. Every chapter, even the ones that felt uncertain, was refining your alignment.
Authenticity grows through experience, through listening, adjusting, and returning to what feels true.

That’s not failure. That’s wisdom in motion.

The Real Takeaway

Authenticity isn’t about burning everything down and starting over.
It’s about showing up differently in the life you already have - bringing more of who you truly are into every room, every decision, every conversation.

That’s how your outer world begins to catch up with your inner truth.
That’s how purpose stops being something you chase and becomes the energy you naturally radiate.

Each moment of honesty, the small, unseen ones, builds your authenticity muscle.
Over time, that muscle becomes your compass: steady, strong, unmistakably yours.

Because authenticity isn’t just about being real.
It’s about remembering your power - the quiet, unwavering strength that comes from living as your true self.

This is where true impact begins, not from effort, but from energetic alignment.
From being who you were always designed to be.

So here’s your invitation:
Choose one small moment today to be more real - to speak the truth you usually soften, to honor an inner nudge you often dismiss, or to let yourself be seen just a little more.

That’s how the authenticity muscle grows. One real moment at a time.

Your Next Step

You were never meant to live by someone else’s blueprint.
Your energy carries its own rhythm, its own truth.

✨ If you’re ready to reconnect with that truth, start by downloading your free Human Design report - a mirror to your natural brilliance.

✨ And when you’re ready to translate that awareness into action, book a free Purpose Mapping Session. Together, we’ll align your energy, purpose, and next chapter with ease, not force.

Because this is how the authenticity muscle grows, one real moment at a time.
Each choice to live as yourself strengthens your frequency, expands your impact, and brings you closer to the life you were always designed for.