I think being yourself all the time wherever you are is incredibly counterproductive. I don't view myself as perfect, which means there are areas of my own self I want to change, and without me consciously attempting to become different from my current self, absolutely nothing will change and indesirable personality traits will just continue to perpetuate themselves.

Some behaviours just clash with your environment, and there's always the decision whether a change to your environment or a change to your perception of your environment is the wiser path to take in resolving these conflicts. Maybe moving to a different place will solve your anxiety problems (toxic environment), or practicing to become more confident (internal change) will do so.

Telling someone to "Just be themselves, all the time, wherever they are" however tells them to ignore any of these conflicts and in my view is an incredibly pessimistic view in a certain sense. You're telling them that their environent is a certain way, that their self is a certain way, and that they might as well run head first into their environment without changing their trajectory, because that's the right thing to do, and that that is the obvious thing to do, that their attempt at changing either is futile. If they do happen to suffer due to these conflicts, then that is the fault of the character and environment lottery they just happen to have lost.

Now there might be character traits that you want to strenghten, and maybe your perception of your environment prevents you from doing so. I think that's the only case where a limited "Just be yourself (more)" is a step in the right direction. In any other case it's just encouraging virtues and vices in the same way, and due to that, blindness to which is which.

Haha, the psychology of the 'self' is very very interesting and a little scary.

Do you think all of your thoughts are 'completely original' and created by you?

Or do you think that most of your thoughts stem from things you have experienced in the direct environment of your life and your overall personality,goals,likes and dislikes are built upon these thoughts and experiences? And therefore by changing your environment and experiences you would be a completely different version of yourself?

What if you were born to a Saudi Arabian family? What are the chances you would be a Muslim, possibly signifigantly conservative, you wouldn't like the TV shows and music you currently like, your goals would be drastically different because the culture has different socially sanctioned versions of success, etc.....

How much of you is really 'you'? Where does the idea of 'you' begin and where does the surrounding world stop?

I know for a fact I'm a different person when I'm with my mom, standing alone at a bar, with my friends. Friends is a big thing, often when I travel I notice that amoung groups of friends, especially ones straight out of high school, there is a clear social hierarchy. You can't help but think that the follower type should have gone alone and learned to talk to strangers better.

Travelling and meeting a wide assortment of people really does grow your own personality in interesting ways, it's human nature. You get to test out different traits that people who know you would raise an eyebrow at. I bet it gets quite complicated and involves how trust is formed and how people who act sporadically are less trustworthy. That trust game just isn't in play with strangers you'll never see again.

Just don't let them search you out on facebook, the personality trait status quo enforcer.

What makes you think there's such thing as a single "yourself"?