What does it mean to you to be You?
This is the age-old question of ‘identity’ – what does it mean to me to be Me?
It’s simple – I just need to find out who I am, what matters to me, where my place is in the world, what my purpose is, what I do and don’t like, what drives me and what stops me.
Ok, whoa. There’s a lot here. Maybe it’s not so simple.
Hmm, where do I start??
Another tough question. Fortunately, there are many books, tools, resources and modalities to choose from to start exploring who we really are and what really matters to us. I’ve been exploring a number of these and I am sharing on this website my experiences with them. This is what this WHOLE website is all about!
I think one of the best places to start is to be aware of and understand your values. These are what really matter to you. These guide you through your life whether you realise it or not. When things feel great, you’re around people you feel comfortable with, you are doing things you really like, chances are you are in a situation where your values are aligned with the people and circumstances around you. When things don’t feel so great, chances are there is some misalignment with your values.
Your values guide you through life. To fit in with life, on occasion you may have to be flexible and bend away from them slightly, though you should always come back into alignment with them. They are the centre point/core/backbone of you. If you bend away from them too much, you will ‘break’ and fall out of alignment with yourself and eventually find yourself dissatisfied, unhappy, stuck, yearning for more or something different to what you have. Which is what happened to me.
Now of course, the world isn’t meant to be a place that completely aligns to our own values – it doesn’t work like that. However, when you know who you are and what matters to you, you can make choices and choose people and situations that are a better match for what is really important to you.
For me, my highest value is integrity. Integrity trumps everything in my book, and in my little corner of the world. That’s why you’ll see on this website ‘Live in Integrity’. It’s important to me so I’m making sure it lives here on my website too.
I think finding out and knowing your values is an important first step on the pathway back to you. I think an important second step on that pathway is really coming to understand what beliefs you hold, what you honestly believe to be true – about you, about your life, about your experiences, about your corner of the world.
Once you can gain a real understanding of your values and beliefs and really become aware of them, you will start to see yourself for who you really are. And then, you will know when you are being true and authentic to you – and when you are not.
But how do I find out what I value and believe? Stay with me as I explore tools and resources on this website to help you answer this question and take those first two steps.
We’re nowhere near exploring any of the other questions yet – What is my purpose? What is my place in the world? What drives me and what stops me? We’ll get to those.
And so, I ask you again, what does it mean to you to be You? Do you want to know? Do you dare to find out? Let’s explore that together. One stepping-stone at a time.
Be true and authentic to you