It seems to be conventional wisdom that it’s unwise to blog about politics, religion and sex. So I guess posting about politicians having sex with members of the clergy is right out and my highly inflammatory headline of ‘The Priest, The Prostitute and the Pervy Politician’ will have to remain under wraps for the time being. You can also add blogging about personal issues to that list too, because many professional and part-time Bloggers also see that as a huge no-no.

I understand why people think that should be the case. There’s a danger if you get too edgy, in alienating your readers and creating an atmosphere of controversy for controversies sake, but there also has to be a balance, right? It’s no good skirting issues that are important to you just so that you don’t break some unwritten rule or offend somebody that just can’t wait to be offended. It’s also inadvisable to pretend to be something or somebody that you’re not, because sooner or later people will see through the façade and expose you for the charlatan that you are.

A few people seem to think that as a life coach and one that writes a blog on life coaching and even has a book published on the subject, that I’m impervious to the problems that people contact me about. That I have everything boxed off and I live in a state of sheer bliss moving from one utopian encounter to another.

I’m reminded of a brilliant poster that was all the rage in officers a few years ago in the UK. It showed 3 or 4 cartoon characters rolling around the floor of an office, clutching their sides in hysterical laughter. Below them was a caption that read: “You Want It When?”

The fact is as my family and friends know all too well, I do get stressed. I also get grumpy and occasionally talk negatively to myself as well as gibberish to others. I can be argumentative and opinionated, especially after a couple of glasses of wine and I sometimes find myself working too many hours even though I tell clients they shouldn’t. I’m sure there are many other faults that don’t immediately spring to mind, and if you know me well you may even be feeling the urge to fill in the comments field below to help me out.

I have been reading Tom Volkar’s excellent Delightful Work blog recently and Tom has been looking closely at the area of the being ourselves and not pandering to the wishes and sensibilities of the other 6 billion people we share the planet with. That’s not to suggest we disregard other peoples feelings, just that we resist the urge to make them our own responsibility. In terms of writing a blog, that means saying what I want to say and accepting that some people wont like it too much and others hopefully will.

What’s the point of this post you may be thinking? I guess like most of them, not a lot, other than to say; be yourself, because to do anything different means to avoid being true to yourself and if you’re not being true to yourself, whom are you being true to?

Try not to spend half your time appeasing others and acting out a role that is inherently foreign to you. In the long run it doesn’t do anybody any favors least of all the people you are trying to mollify. The flip side of that though is that we all (me included) need to be more tolerant of others. If we want to express who we are, then we should allow others to do the same and not look down our noses at people simply because they are poorer, wealthier, taller, skinnier, darker, fairer or vote Republican ;-)