Create a strong identity for yourself - you'll need it

Who are you?

What is your purpose?

We need to know the answers to those two questions, if we are to make a difference with our life.

Forming a strong identity is nowadays more important than ever before in the history of humanity. Never before were people pulled in so many directions by fads, tricks, trends, social media, and all those who apparently want to make us better, smarter, skinnier, fashionable, keeping up with the times, and all those other things you see in ads and pop-ups, but those do not have our best in mind, they only have enriching themselves in mind... by feeding on our insecurities.

So. you need to know yourself who you are, before someone else would tell you who you are, and how badly you need their product to become a better version of yourself.

You are not the clothes you wear, nor the material stuff you surround yourself with, you are who you perceive yourself at your core level. What are your values? What are your strengths? Who are you in relation to the people you see every day? Who are you when no one is around? The last question is the crucial one: who are you when there's no one to impress, no one to applaud you, and no one that you can delegate or to look down upon? Who are you in that moment: a loner, a crier, a whiner, a blamer, a complainer, someone who doesn't like the silence of your own company?

We live in a vortex of constant changes. How many companies that were all the rage 30 years ago are still in existence today, how many jobs that are ''the norm '' today, didn't even existed 10 years ago?

And your life also falls into that constant change thing. Because, while you already adapted to those changes in your past, there are more unanticipated changes still awaiting you in your future.

And that's why you need to know 100% who you are at your core, and what you're here for, in this life, at this time, in this place. Consider that ''knowing'' your mental backbone that will pull you through the thick and thin of your life.

Without it.... well you may fall through the cracks... or break down... or lose direction... or at the worst - a sense of purpose.

And that's why you should avoid identifying who you are at your core with anything external of you: people, places, material goods, or any attachments to stuff.

12 years ago I suffered a horrific medical misfortune (please respect my privacy by not asking me what it was, because the answer is not imperative to the story). Many people don't survive this, and those who do, well the large majority never recover into living a normal life again.

Knowing who I was at the core of my being, partially helped me to recover, and live a life with more significance and impact than I had before. Although I am a survivor of that misfortune, I'd not identify with that description. I'd say ''I'm an overcomer'', because quitting the years long, grueling recovery process, was never an option. It just wouldn't align in how I saw myself in life. So I kept persevering, no matter how difficult the recovery was.

If you define yourself as someone outside of who you are, who will you be when

your kids leave for college, or start their own lives?

you will retire ?

you will lose everything you own, and will be left with the clothes on your back ?

A retiree would enjoy the first 3 days of his new lifestyle of walking around the house in his pajamas, but on the 4th day his new world will be crushing down. You need to know your purpose, to carry yourself from one life change to the next, without crushing like a spineless marionette.

The time to think about it is NOW.

You are not the clothes you wear, nor the material stuff you surround yourself with, you are who you perceive yourself at your core level. What are your values? What are your strengths? Who are you in relation to the people you see every day? Who are you when no one is around?