Chameleon No More

Why the Real You Is the Only Hue That Matters

You’ve spent years perfecting it, haven’t you? That subtle shapeshift into whoever the room needs you to be. You blend in at board meetings, mimic politeness at PTA gatherings, adjust your tone for dates, drinks, and DMs. You, my friend, are a full-time chameleon—trained in camouflage, fluent in fitting in, and allergic to authenticity.

But here’s the cosmic joke….

…….a world bursting with fake influencers, synthetic selfies, and polished personas, the most radical thing you can do is be yourself. Raw. Vivid. Unedited. Yeah, you—the glorious, weird, neon version hiding behind your respectable beige.

Now let’s bring in the old sages who didn’t have Instagram filters, but still had the audacity to glow in their own true colors.

Taoist sage Lao Tzu basically ghosted society, walked into the wilderness riding a water buffalo, and wrote the Tao Te Ching. Why? Because he was done with the hustle, the masks, the fakeness. He didn’t try to be the Tao—he just let the Tao be through him. No PR strategy, no TikTok growth hacks. Just a radical being.

Then there’s Zhuangzi, the guy who laughed at funeral rites, dreamed he was a butterfly, and refused to be pinned down by roles or rituals. He taught that clinging to fixed identities is like trying to hug a cloud—it’ll just slip through. His wisdom? You don’t have to choose one color. You’re the whole technicolor dreamcoat. Float like a butterfly, vibe like a breeze.

Mencius, a Confucian cousin with Taoist flavor, reminded us that human nature is like water—it flows toward good if not blocked. Translation? Your true color isn’t something you create, it’s something you unblock. All those times you played it safe? That wasn’t your essence, it was just the dam in the way.

And what might the Bhagavad Gita whisper to your chameleon soul? Arjuna was stuck in his own identity crisis, paralyzed on a battlefield, unwilling to act. Enter Krishna, part cosmic Uber driver, part spiritual hype man. His message? Do your dharma. Not someone else’s. Not your mom’s. Not your HR-approved version. Yours. Even if it’s messy. Even if it makes people uncomfortable. Even if it gets you unfollowed.

So what’s the wisdom in all this?

You don’t need to blend in. You need to bleed through. Let your truest shade leak into your speech, your walk, your work, your wardrobe. Show up not as a mood ring, but as a full-spectrum being. Paint the room, don’t match it.

Of course, it’s scary. You’ve got years of muscle memory that says, “Adapt or be left out.” But real belonging doesn’t come from blending. Instead, I believe it comes from standing boldly in your hue and magnetizing the wild tribe that sees it and says, “There you are.”

Here’s a nudge from the universe: the next time you feel the pull to shrink, to dim, to costume up—don’t. Choose resonance over relevance. Choose essence over image. Choose you over the algorithmic idea of you.

The Tao doesn’t try to impress. It flows. The butterfly doesn’t apologize for not being a moth. It flutters. You don’t owe the world a palatable version of your soul. You owe it your truth.

And when you do finally step out in full bloom—no disguise, no dye-job—you’ll feel it. That unmistakable zing of being in alignment. Of living your dharma, expressing your Tao, embodying your own damn mythology.

So, dear chameleon, take off the color you borrowed. Unzip the borrowed skin. Let the world see your true hue. Radiate. Roar. Reveal.

Because the Tao is not found in hiding. It’s found in the boldness of being.

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Diamond Michael Scott

aka The Chocolate Taoist