The Greg V Miller Blog Spot

“Look in the mirror ask yourself who are you, if you don’t know who you are how can your dreams come true” – 50 Cent

I can specifically remember being in high school and the importance that teachers and my guidance counselor put on setting goals in life. Now at the time I thought it was all bologna. It wasn’t until after I was out of high school that I understood exactly what they meant. Part of the reason I probably had a hard time understanding the concept was because I didn’t know who or what I wanted to be in life.

This concept of knowing who you are is probably why it takes some people years to get their stuff together. Why people in their 30′s, 40′s, and yes even 50′s have not achieved the things they thought they would achieve or are struggling day by day to survive. When you understand who you are, when you can look in the mirror and say “this is me”, it does something. There is a confidence behind you, a swagger that you’ll have. You put yourself in a position where you can move forward and put one foot in front of the other without skipping a beat. Knowing yourself is knowing what you want out of life, seeking out the knowledge and understanding to get those things, and then letting nothing stand in your way. Once you have reached that point, you can set goals for yourself to achieve and start to build upon the benchmarks of success.

Dictionary.com defines success as “The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted.” Our desires and passions are tied directly to who we are. Confidence allows us to have the mindset and belief that we can achieve our desires. Once we’ve achieved them success is the end result. There’s a logical order to this

1. Know who we are

2. Have confidence in who we are

3. Go after what we want

4. Achieve success in our desired endeavors

So I guess the real question is how do you learn who you are? Is there a process or steps that you can take to figure this out?

I wasn’t very confident with leaving home and going to college to study Engineering. Mainly because that wasn’t who I was or where I wanted to be. When I actually figured out that I wanted to learn more about computers and go into IT, I was on the road to discovering who I was. While there is no blueprint for figuring out who you are there are some tips I would like to offer.

- Think about the times in your life that make you the happiest. The people, the places, what you were doing. Sometimes small events are clues to uncovering what you like.

- What strikes your curiosity? What is it that you want to learn about and drives you to find out more of?

- When you are somewhere you don’t want to be, what is the first thing that comes to mind? It is probably where you would rather be.

- Take a break from everything. Even if just for 10 or 15 minutes. Find time for yourself without the distraction of television, work, or anyone else. Sit quietly and contemplate on your present mindset and what you like or dislike about it.

Our success in life is directly tied to who we are. Once we figure that out we can actually set goals for ourselves. Achieving those goals is what allows us to grow as individuals.

Have you discovered who you are and set out to achieve your goals? I’d like to know.