Who am I?

This can be a tricky subject.

Some of us grew up without a sense of who we are as individuals. We were taught to listen to everyone else.

As adults, did we spend time working out who we are and what we want? Working out our needs, wants and desires? Or did we instead continue to be defined by others view of the world and how they think we should fit in to it?

Some people seem to have it all sorted. They know who they are and what they want from their lives. Others seem to always be flitting from one thing to another, never settling on one thing, or one relationship.

The thing is, I don’t think it is that black and white all the time.

There is no doubt that we will benefit from having a clear understanding of who we are. To understand what makes us happy. To understand we are a person in our own right, and not as part of another person. Our work life, our personal life and just life in general will benefit from this knowledge and understanding.

The reality is that for some of us, we will spend a life time trying to work out who we are. Some of us will change jobs, partners and where we live. Others will stay at the same place for a lifetime. It can be a lifelong journey of discovery.  

I think the key is being happy with who we are. It doesn’t matter so much if we redefine who we are over the course of our lives. We are many things to many people – partner, parent, child, friend, work mate.

It is crazy that at fifty plus years old I still often wonder ‘who am I?’ I am still working on figuring out who I am, not being defined by others. I love that we have the opportunity, each day if we want to, to re-invent ourselves!