A 21-yr-old’s POV: Why You Should Find Out Who You Really Are EARLY

West Shepherd
2 min readOct 7, 2015

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find out who you really are early

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The age-old question that everyone is asked as a kid — and it’s inherently flawed.

What if instead we asked: “Who do you want to be?” or better yet: “What kind of person do you want to be?”

Whenever I got in trouble as a kid or made a questionable decision, my Dad would point at me and say: “Go upstairs, look yourself in the mirror, and ask yourself: is this the person I want to be.” I never really did the actual act until I got older, but practicing self-reflection was a thing from an early age.

Now, at 21, I consider myself lucky that I know myself as well as I do.

I fundamentally believe everyone would be better off if they just decided to find out who they really are as early as possible.

And the philosophy hacks (I’m one too) could pipe up here with: “No one will ever know who they really are because we’re all conflicted souls.” OK, yeah we all read Oedipus in like 8th grade. Relax.

I’m talking about something much more optimistic that’ll make you love life.

#1 reason why people don’t find out what they really like to do or what they’re really good at is because they’re afraid to find out who they really are. You’ve probably heard this before. But take it from a 21 yr old who has just recently decided to be who he likes to be >>>

You gain the ability to be more open and optimistic towards others because you’re already all good with who you are. You can act on creative impulses without fear because you trust that whatever it is you make will be yours and that’s all good. Best of all, you can go after goals, big and small, without a doubt that you can reach them. They might change, but you can trust yourself that right now, that’s the right thing to do.

In sum, deciding to find out who you are at an early age gives you the incredibly liberating gift of going all in and actually doing things, creating things, and going after things without fear, because you trust yourself 100,000,000,000%.

Put on a smile (we’re all better looking like that anyways), take a couple deep breaths, and look yourself in the mirror. Whatever you find is all good. Trust yourself, and go do stuff.

What do I wanna be when I grow up? Just me(2.0).

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West Shepherd

I help visionary entrepreneurs build their big ideas. Founder, CEO @ West Group | westgroup.co