Be\ing

Almost

It's so hard not being yourself - ok

It's so hard not to be yourself - ok

What about the third option?

"Not being yourself is so hard"

Why 'being not yourself...' isn't right? If we look at it as a one word...

Don't understand what you mean by "one word". Not being yourself is 3 words.

Anyway, the reason that we say "Not being yourself" and not the other way around is because it is a rule of grammar that 'not' goes BEFORE infinitives and the "...ing" for of the verb.

"It's important NOT to put 'not' after an infinitive"

"The computer is not working properly"

I meant that we looked at 'not youself' as a one word.

But anywise, I suppose "The computer is not working unproperly" is fine.
Then could we replace 'unproprely' by 'not preoperly'? Or if we do this the order must be chanhed?

Mav, there is no word "unproperly". You have to say "The computer is not working properly"

Now I uderstand what you mean about 'not yourself'. However, 'not' belongs to the verb 'being' - it makes the negative form of the verb. It doesn't belong to the pronoun 'yourself'

Hmmm I am sorry it should've been 'improptrly' and there's a superflous 'not' in the above sentence.

Here's what I mean:

1 It's so hard not to be yourself
2 It's so hard to be someone else
3 It's so hard to be anyone but yourself
4 It's so hard to be anyone, however, not yourself
5 It's so hard to be X

Now X= 'not yourself'
Let's make a 'not'

Hey Mav,
When I first saw this, I thought it was a poem!

'However' isn't good in sentence 4. Try:

It's so hard to be anyone except yourself.

If you were writing a poem, you might get away with poetic licence for 6, because I can see what you are trying to say.

maybe it is a poem - you should put it on the poetry page.

Yes my bad with 'howver'...
I don't quite understand you. I wasn't writing a poem I was trying to understand why what I wrote is incorrect.