Do you know who you are?
Simple. Maybe you’re a parent, or a creative person, or an amazing athlete.
Wait, that’s not who you are. Those are possible interests and things about you.
So, who are you?
If you’ve had several identity breakdowns, maybe you’ve already asked yourself this before.
How do you find an answer?
As a child, and even as an adult, I watched shows to see who I identified with the most. Growing up, it was Ash Ketchum from Pokemon. As an adult, it’s been Phil Dunphy from Modern Family. I’d also like to add that I’m similar to Nick Miller from New Girl and my partner is Shmidt, LOL. It’s pretty damn accurate and makes me laugh.
Maybe you’re a Myers-brigg junkie like me and know your four letters. Or your Enneagram, or your astrology sign.
Regardless if you’re a pro, or you’re going to start doing some tests now, it’s important to know yourself. To know what you stand for and what you can manage. If you don’t it can be easy to get taken advantage of and walked all over.
Not to mention, it’s nice to take a step back when we catch ourselves close to the edge of losing ourselves.
You may end up in a job that sees your strengths and tries to capitalize on them. This happened to me. I accepted a job, loved it, and then was offered more work to do with no extra pay. Insane, right?
What I’ve come to learn is, that there is no stopping at Go and collecting $200. There’s no way to kiss ass at a job or hack life when it already feels rigged. Which is why I spoke of the art of defiance in my last post. If these companies want to throw out demands, I can make a conscious decision as a consumer to fight back by slowing down.
So what does this have to do with knowing yourself?
Hard work and rest are both good, how do you know where your happy medium is?
What needs do you have that need to be met? What are your essentials?
What do you need to thrive as an individual?
What are my strengths? Night owl? IT genius?
I think we’ve convinced ourselves that it’s okay to go this fast, and that we’re having a great time. Yet, all I see are many miserable people, exhausted and worn. Are you feeling this way?
What will help us pave the way to a better future?
What will help us is assessing what we truly need as individuals. I know it sounds selfish right?
However, if we take care of ourselves, we’ll better be able to put the oxygen mask on for other people, right?
Now, this is going to be hard. Because we’re constantly told that we need to do certain things to sustain the level of comfort we have. However, maybe those need to change. Are we demanding too much of ourselves and each other?
How do we shift this?
I think about this often and haven’t come up with one fix-all cure. What it will look like is a slow shift back to a bit slower pace of life mixed with what we already have. A slow descent into a mix of hyper-consumerism and “old school” living.
Knowing yourself will help bring about changes in any areas of your life you feel are lacking. Sit down with a journal and pen down what you love about yourself. What connections do you have in your life that you’re grateful for? How can you make more, or grow the ones you already have?
Life is beautiful, and it’s important to enjoy it while I have it, rather than rush through it with eyes snapped shut.
Thank you, dear reader, for your time. I appreciate you taking a look at this and I hope you take care.
Until next time,
XX Ash