Norma’s journey started when she was 28 and realized that although she had done everything her parents had suggested for her – getting a husband, teaching job, cars, house and money in the bank – she was miserable.

She didn’t know what to do with herself because she didn’t know who she was. She had become her parent’s version of who they thought she should be. This started her on a 30-year quest of self-discovery.

The Authenticity program was born after Norma found the need to understand herself and then spent 30 years in studying human nature from personal, professional and spiritual perspectives. What she discovered is that we all have three voices: An inner, outer and expressive voice.

The inner voice is the quiet voice that speaks to you and you are the only one who can hear it. The outer voice is how others perceive you, like when you walk into a room of strangers and they make an immediate impression about who you are. Your expressive voice is who you have become in the world and how you live your life.

The search to find one’s authentic self then became her life’s work. She shared her findings in a 20-city tour and learned that the way she came to understand herself is also how others saw themselves too.

“It seems like everywhere in society that I look, people are wearing masks, being someone that they are not. I’ve studied this for over 30 years and have concluded that the masks are because people lose sight of who they are.

It often starts when young children are discouraged from making the noise that comes from expressing natural gifts such as signing, talking and playing instruments, or told to be still when all they want to do is dance, run or play with a ball.

Over time, these young children let go of their natural tendencies and replace them with behaviors that they feel are dictated by society. And because these behaviors are not necessarily natural to them, they create masks to be the person they feel society wants them to be rather than being their authentic self. These masks last a lifetime.”

This is why it’s crucial to remove the mask that stifles your authentic self. No matter how much you hide, the mask will never fit because it is not yours to wear. It is not you.