Life Isn't About Finding Yourself. Life Is About Creating Yourself. So, how do you create yourself?
After my first two posts about creating yourself that I shared on January 22nd and 26th I have found that I have more questions than I do answers. Honestly, though, my thinking time has been short. It seems that my life has shifted onto the fast track, the fast track of the hamster on the treadmill to nowhere. I have to think that life distracts us and can sometimes block us from creating ourselves.
In the first post I shared that part of creating oneself is through exposure to different thoughts and new approaches to thinking. I gave the example of creating yourself through expanding your thoughts, exploring your world, embracing new ideas, always seeking to know more, accepting life's experiences. In the second post I shared that the events of your life lead you to be the person you are today as well as the person you want to be. I think in the process of creating ourselves we incorporate a selective process where we attach ourselves to what we want to be and try to move away from that which we do not want to be. In the process, we create the person we are happy to be.
A further thought is that you create yourself. It isn't like the popular game show where a voice calls out your name and says, "Come on down, here you are all created". There is no "BOOM" and you are yourself. Whether it is through the conscious selective process or a sub-conscious process where you make decisions about yourself without being aware of what you are doing, it is you and you alone creating yourself. And, it is a life long process of creating. It never ends.
So, what is it inside us that makes this process work? I don't know. Remember Jaydon's question why do you like to sew? in a post a while back? I had no answer to that question either. There is just something within us that causes us to become the person we are. I am starting to think that to a certain extent it is something we can control once we are aware of having that selective ability. I have no answers, just questions to ponder. Am I the person I want to be?
I wish I knew too. I do know there have been several versions of "me" but at the core I'm pretty much the same person. I was very different at 18 than I am now, and I'm different than I was at 25. I think too we adapt to the situation we are living in at the current time. When I was in high school I went to a small Christian private school and I don't know if my friends now would even know that person. I was quiet and reserved because to have an opinion other than what was taught just led to getting into trouble and I hate conflict. My friends knew what I thought, I could care less what a teacher thought. I loved college for the simple fact I got to be ME. I could have some wild liberal opinion and it was a-ok! I still walk to the beat of my own drum and definitely don't toe the correct and proper lines but I've tempered a bit from my 20s. I love that we're a work in process I don't ever want to be _done_. I love learning and growing and finding that next thing that sets me on fire. I love these posts of yours.
ReplyDeleteThere have been several versions of me, too and I agree that we do adapt to our situation. But I think more than anything I evolved as I "woke up" and became more of a free thinker and an independent person. It seems that we are both looking for and embracing those new things that help us to grow...I suspect there are many other men and women that feel the same way.
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