Under all of your actions, all of your words, all of the ways you interact with your environment and society and self, there is…
…nothing.
There is no “real you” that’s somehow different from all the stuff you say and think and do. We are the sum of our deeds. If you think “if only people knew the real me, they’d treat me differently than they do,” then perhaps you should reflect on why people treat you that way in the first place.
Values need to become actions. If you want to think of yourself as brave, then you need to ask “What are the actions of a brave person?” And then you need to do those things. That is all you will ever have.
So the uncomfortable truth is that there is no “real you.” But the good news is that nothing is therefore holding you back from being anything you want to be. All the actions are there for the taking.
The Opportunity Machine 