Brené Brown Instagram – On this week’s episode of “Unlocking Us,” I dug in with my sisters, Ashley and Barrett, on Guidepost #1 from “The Gifts of Imperfection”: Cultivating Authenticity. Before I started doing my research, I always thought of people as being either authentic or inauthentic. Authenticity was simply a quality that you had or that you were lacking. I think that’s the way most of us use the term: “She’s a very authentic person.” But as I started immersing myself in the research, I realized that, like many desirable ways of being, authenticity is not something we have or don’t have. It’s a practice — a conscious choice of how we want to live. And there is no authenticity without boundaries. This is tough for those of us who were raised to believe that being liked and keeping people comfortable are more important than our own self-worth or self-respect. My mantra in those tough moments: “Choose discomfort over resentment.” I’d rather ten minutes of discomfort than the quiet, soul-sucking fury that comes with an uninspired, dishonest, “Sure. No problem . . . asshole.”