Why It’s Not About ‘Finding Yourself’
Because change isn’t finite.
I was having a conversation with a stranger in a coffee shop the other day — it started off about work and gradually developed into travel. He was young — I’m not the best at judging ages but he looked about 24 — and was telling me how he was planning to go on a holiday to Columbia, Cancun and Cuba for five weeks. He would be going on his own and staying in the gritty shelter offered by hostels during his entire time. He used the phrase, ‘finding himself’ more than once.
When someone says that they are on the journey to find themselves, it suggests that there is an end-point to discovery. It also implies that being lost and found are two dichotomous points along the journey. You are lost and young at your beginning and then, usually once you’ve travelled enough, and trekked your way through a winding and flame-lined path, you will achieve the destination of your true mature self, victorious and whole.
He used the phrase, ‘finding himself’ more than once.
It not only suggests change is finite, but in doing so, hugely simplifies human development.
A study of self.
Psychologist Dan Gilbert recently spoke at a Ted conference about The psychology of your future…
