Answered: Your Most Burning Questions About “WHO AM I?”
Over time all of us change to an extraordinary degree. From a physical perspective, we start as small kids with small fingers, eyes, legs, head, and soft delicate skin. Soon or late we end up being these old people with grey hairs and even rough skin. With my little biological knowledge; our cells become replaced millions of times over some time. That’s a lot of change if we imagine. We go through all sorts of experiences and create different memories each time we live on earth. Some memories might grow old with us while others will be left behind based on their importance in our life or how they have shaped how we live today.
You’ve just read the first paragraph of my article. And now you’ve started the second one. Congratulations, you’re a great reader. But here is the catch, for some reason we will remember our names for a long period. Our names will become part of us and somewhere down the line, some great legacies will be written down to our names if we dare to do so.
As Dale Carnegie said, in his book ``How to win Friends and Influence People”, a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
People want respect to be put on their names. Every person wants to be remembered for something. That’s why people go above and beyond to do the scariest things we think they can not be done. While that might completely be true then over time one will admit that our names do not clearly define who we are or what we want to be in life. It’s all about our actions. The small or bigger things we do and impact people’s lives will determine whether people will remember our names. And that goes in two directions, if you do good things then you will be remembered for good things, on the other hand, if you do bad things people will remember you for the same bad things you did(lol). But let me guess not many people want to be remembered for doing bad things.
Note: The definition of bad things here is subjective, what people may consider bad in community A might be completely different in community B.
Because our names do not clearly define who we are, what we do, or what we will become, people often find themselves asking the question, WHO AM I? How can I know what I want to be?
If I were to answer this question, I’ll probably say I don’t really know who I am, but because I wrote this article I am a writer(lol). It’s common among many people of my age that we don’t know who we are. In the quest to find who we are, we pass through many moments of thorough searching and questioning, and mostly not all of us find the answer to this question unless we do things that take us some time.
Don’t be surprised to learn that every time you ask yourself who you are, you’ll get a completely different answer.
Last few days I published my first ever article online on the reasons why I wanted to write and the six main reasons I think I should take the challenge well. If you haven’t read the article do yourself a favor a read it ( here).
Maybe this may be a little bit of continuation but hell No, I have more staff cooking. Lots of places to take my readers to. More lessons to share, more reflections to do, and overall inspiring content to post. However, for me to reach all the crazy milestones I need to reach, I need to do one thing. Guess it. You are right, “I need to know myself well”. I need to ask myself that important question most of us avoid,” Who am I? I believe If I know myself better it would be easy to write about things I love and create research to provide the best and most authentic content ever. Content that will not only shape me but also the people who love to see themselves exploring new horizons.
So Who am I? Will my background story answer it?
I am pleased to state that I am a daring, brave, risk-taking individual who is always a little baffled. I am a calm person with many shortcomings that I am attempting to correct but have yet to succeed. However, this does not deter me from continuing my efforts. At times, I am scared, and at other times, I am fearless. I have a strong desire to learn more about myself.
So what should we do?
Rather than asking questions, I think we should enter into flow by immersing ourselves in an intriguing task — any work — and your work will help you figure out who you are or give you some clues.
Yeah, you read it right, Wake up and do something!
But that’s not all of it, do something and reflect on the experience later.
- Ask yourself what are you grateful for?
- What was the best thing that happened while you were doing what you did?
- What new things have you learned or discovered from that experience?
- What is one thing you could have done differently?
- Lastly, ask yourself what did you feel?
That’s all I wanted to tell you in this article. Do something and reflect on the experience later. The more you reflect the better you get the answers. So the point is to make reflection your daily habit.
Special Mention: I learned this while doing my Leadership Core studies at African Leadership University and put it into practice during my three months Internship at Global Citizenship Foundation.
Do I still have your attention? Let’s get to the final part. For some reason, not many people like to read books from No name authors or writers. As harsh as it sounds, we don’t care about a No named author, we don’t care about a long-page book or even an article. The reason is simple. If that person or his book does not provide any value to us or solved any of our problems then why would we want to know about their life?
I get it. You’ve found something until this point. So if you still care allow me to share some of the experiences below which gave me some answers to the question, Who am I? And some of the lessons I learned that I carry every day with me.
- I exercise frequently
One thing about being part of a certain sport or exercising personally is that you have to fall in love with the Physical and mental challenge that comes with it. When you are exercising it is always you against you. No players, no competitors, and no enemies. It’s you, your whole body, and your mind. Foot after foot, breath after breath and you push yourself to go further. You will sense your body sweating and your heart pumping. Everything around you usually slows down and enters a state of Calmness. You feel the wind blowing along your face and watch your body move on autopilot. It can feel like meditation until you flip back into reality. Your body may tell you to stop but you still keep going. Exercise for me is the essence of ambitions, always fighting, always pushing, always improving. It’s all about embracing the discomfort and breaking the mental barrier.
Exercising taught me the most important lesson in life. It taught me that we are aware of only a fraction of things we are capable of and our limitations only exist in our minds.
2. I volunteered as a Biology and Geography teacher for a year.
Teaching for me has been more than just being a teacher. I first held the interest in teaching many years ago when I was fortunate enough to have a fantastic teacher who was both inspiring, motivational, and passionate about his subject. He had a natural ability to explain a difficult concept or topic in very simple terms. Right after I graduated from high school I realized I had an abundance of natural skills, Knowledge, and qualities that would enable me to become a competent teacher. Through teaching, I realized that I had strong communication skills, organizational and planning capabilities, positive work values and ethics, integrity, and determination to ensure the students I am teaching get the opportunity to learn and develop in a safe and fulfilling environment gave me much fulfillment.
The big lesson I took away from this experience is that in life learning never stops. It has taught me to be vulnerable and always have a continuous learning Mindset.
3. I did an unpaid internship for three months right after my first year of college.
Internships are a crucial part of the professional development of any College and University student. Internships can be rewarding if taken seriously and performed holistically. Right after my first year at college I was fortunate enough to secure an International internship and worked alongside individuals from 20+ countries across the globe. I was skeptical about it in the first place and even doubted myself if I was fit for the position I applied for. Apart from the hard and soft skills I learned in this internship, I learned that there are always people who are ready to help and it comes down to us being vulnerable enough to ask for help.
Through this experience, I learned to listen and respect every person we meet because despite the originality and experiences they may have an important thing that might be useful to you one day.
That’s it. You have finished the race. I hope you got something useful as I don’t want to write or share these articles just for the sake of sharing, I want to inspire people and individuals to believe in themselves and start doing bigger things. There are millions of people like you out there, they haven’t figured it out yet but with constant trial and error, they find what they were meant to do in life. If you’ve found out who you really were meant to be kindly help others.
Remember: Do something and reflect on the experience later. The more you reflect the better you get the answers. So the point is to make reflection your daily habit.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
