Who Are You? - 7/11/2009

Perhaps the most important part in your quest for a happier and more satisfying life is to determine who you are.  And, I am not talking about your name, age, sex, your social security number or all the other things that we usually associate with personal identity.

Who are you really?  What are your values? What do you want from life? What do you hope to experience? What do you want to accomplish? What is your purpose in life? What is your current direction? What do you believe about yourself?  What do you believe about the environment you live in? What are your capabilities? What do you believe about your potential?

If you plan to have greater control over your life and the circumstances that surround you, it is imperative that you gain at least a basic understanding of who you are and what makes you tick. On the surface, these questions appear to be quite simple, but don’t be misled. It is difficult to determine who you are as a unique individual.

You were brought up by your parents, attended a neighborhood school, associated with a group of people and did for the most part what all the other kids did and what your parents told you to do.  You probably participated with any number of peer groups, teams, friendships or organizations.

All these associations gave you input as to who you were, what you should believe, what you should strive for and what your chances were as far as reaching any degree of success. Remember, that while all this was going on your greatest concern was to be liked, to be loved and to be accepted by the people or groups you associated with. The input from all these experiences was being recorded in your mind as the way things were and as the way things should be.

The various groups we grew up with also tended to demand a certain degree of conformity and applied subtle pressure to keep members in line.  Your parents, your teachers, your religious leaders, and your siblings tended to put pressure on you until you did it their way.  In fact, subtly over time everyone had input as to who you should be and what you were capable of doing or not doing.

And now, here you are!  But, who are you?  Are you a puppet or marionette of the past or are you someone, who wants to have personal freedom and express your own future?

In my opinion, at least, unless you make a conscious effort to change your belief systems, you will tend to use the ones from the past, which tend to be the ones that hold you hostage and hold you back from creating whatever it is you want.

That’s why I started The Cabin Experience. So “Cabineers” who attend could have a safe environment to explore who they are and then decide for themselves if they were really willing to do the most difficult thing in the entire world – to change who they are!!

There are no magic wands here and no one changes in a flash and truly becomes the person they really want to be.  It is a process, but one that is worth it in the long run – in fact, it is the life changing process that I have spoken about for years.

Again, I ask, “Who are you?”  But now I ask a better question, “Who do you really want to be or become - and what price are you willing to pay to get there?

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