I’ve been doing a lot of introspective work recently which has helped me progress in lots of different areas, both mental and in my physical reality.
As part of this work, I’ve been thinking about who I actually am, what are my fundamentals, my foundations, my building blocks and my non-negotiables that define who I am.
I see a lot of people looking for the latest trends, the thing that will work for them, the thing that’s worked for someone else, constantly changing what they do, what they think and what they implement to find whatever it is they think they’re looking for.
The thing is, anything can work.
But if you’re always chopping and changing, you’ll lose yourself in the process.
If you have a solid base, if you know who you are, then you are free to be who you are and can tweak and change the advanced stuff…. instead of the base-ics.
Here’s my base:
- Minimal
- Ethical/integral
- Trustworthy
- Growth/learning mindset
- Kindness
- Strive for excellence
- Do a couple of things really well, then add new things over time (rather than doing lots of things with varying degrees of success)
- Like to experiment
- Trust my intuition
- Stoic
- Chilled
Because I’m extremely confident in my base, I have unwavering faith in it in fact… whenever I need to make a decision it becomes infinitely easier to make the right decision.
This could be something like designing my website, which is extremely minimal – and reflects who I am.
If I didn’t know who I was, I might try and design it to the latest trends, to what someone else thinks – it could easily end up not reflecting me at all, and this would cause a conflict in messaging.
Or it could be something like losing a potentially massive contract and taking it in my stride… because the Stoic in me knows that getting angry or upset won’t achieve anything – it will actually do more harm than good.
If I didn’t know who I was, I might get angry or anxious, or I might tell someone about what happened and they might tell me I should get angry or anxious and I might then take their advice.
Do you see how this works?
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of stuff I’m still trying to figure out, but who I am is no longer one of them… and that is something which makes life a lot easier and more enjoyable.
Which brings me full circle to the title of this email, who are you?
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2 comments On Who are you?
I completely agree with this reasoning Dan. It is a pleasure reading your blog and your emails on Sunday (one of the most interesting was “Getting the most out of your day”).
Really pleased you enjoy reading them Alberto, I enjoy writing them too! Thank you for taking the time to comment.