My father Marlon LaGrone (RIP 1981) wrote this for the Toast Masters Louisiana State contest 50+ years ago. He was runner-up. I found this little piece of treasure over the weekend searching for something else and thought it might inspire others as it has me over the years. Enjoy.
The way to get more living our to life is to learn how to be yourself. What is yourself? We think of ourselves as a Personality. What is “Personality”? Personality is that magnetic mysterious something that is easy to recognize but difficult to define. It is not so much something that is acquired from without; it is something that is released from within.
What we call “Personality” is the outward evidence of that unique and creative self. It might be called the free and full expression of your real self. The real self within every person is attractive. It is magnetic. It has a powerful impact and influence upon other people. We have a feeling that we are in touch with something real and basic.
Take, for instance, a baby. Why does everyone love a baby? Certainly not for what the baby can do, or what he knows. Nor is it what he has-but, simply because of what he is. Every infant has “Personality Plus”. There is no superficiality, no hypocrisy. In his own language, which consists of cooing and crying, the baby expresses his real feelings. He says what he means- the baby is emotionally honest. He shows, to the very degree the psychological dictum “Be yourself.” He has no doubts about expressing himself and is not the least inhibited.
Every human being has the mysterious something we call “Personality.” When we say a person has a good personality, what we really mean is that he has freed and released the creative potential within him and is able to express his real self. Poor personality and inhibited personality are one and the same. The person with a poor personality does not express the creative self within. He has restrained it, handcuffed it, locked it up and thrown away the key. For one reason or another, he is afraid to express himself, afraid to be himself.
The only way you can change this is through self-acceptance. No real success or genuine happiness is possible until a person gains some degree of self-acceptance. The most miserable and tortured person is one who is continually striving to convince himself and others that he is “somebody.” Success, which comes from self-acceptance often excludes those who strive to be ‘somebody’, and comes of its own accord when a person becomes willing to relax and “Be Himself.”
To change your self image does not mean changing yourself, but you must change you own mental picture. You must have some realization of your actual self. Your self, right now, is what has always been, and all that it can ever be. You did not create it. Therefore, you cannot change it. You can, however, realize it, and make the most of what it already is by gaining a true picture of your actual self. There is no use in straining to “Be Somebody.” You are what you are, “Now”. You are not somebody because you have a lot of money, drive a big car, or own a big house- but because God created you in His own image.
Most of us are better and wiser “Now” than we realize. Creating a better self-image does not create new abilities or talents. It releases and utilizes those we already have. We can change our “Personality” but not our “Basic Self”. Personality is a tool, a focal point of the “Self” which we use in dealing with the world. It is the sum total of our habits, attitudes, and learned sills; which we use as a method of expressing our self.
Finally, in order for us to get more living out of life, we must not limit our acceptance of life by our own unworthiness. The most adequate and realistic self-image of all is to conceive yourself as “Made in the image of God. You cannot believe yourself the image of God, deeply and sincerely, with full conviction and not receive a new source of strength and power.
Marlon LaGrone
1/25/36 – 2/25/81
Rest in Peace