Claim Your Identity and Live It Boldly

What are my weak areas?

I paraphrase part of a quote from the movie, Maid in Manhattan – What defines us is not the number of times we fall, but how often we get up after we have fallen.

What sets us apart from someone else is how willing we are to accept that we have weaknesses or we have made a mistake, how we embrace the lessons we learn and how effectively we use those lessons to help us to live lives that honor and enhance who we are.

Your weaknesses define you only as you learn from them and the lessons make you a better person. Because like everyone else, your life is a work in progress, some of your weaknesses may follow you throughout your life but they can be managed. Diligently work to turn them into strengths or stepping stones each time they cause you to fall or fail. Dig through the pain, disappointment and embarrassment for the lessons that will help you to understand who you are because of and in spite of your weaknesses.

What do I fear?

What you fear hinders you from pursuing paths you only dream of. It hovers over you like a dark foreboding cloud during a hurricane. It keeps you stuck in a cycle of hopelessness.

However, when you know and understand your fears, your can mine them for their value and inhibit their power over you. Then the fulfilled and purposeful life you long for and the dreams you crave will loom with possibilities and beckon you to approach and achieve them.

Call up your fears one by one and deal with them effectively once for all. Sometimes certain fears stubbornly linger even after you have wrestled power from them. But that’s all right. Life is not perfect. Eventually they will fade into the background as you settle into your identity, take risks, accomplish goals and your confidence grows.

What is my passion?

Sometimes it takes the discovery of an inner passion to open your eyes to the kind of person you are.

What comes to mind when you think of your passion? It may be old and hidden under the baggage of your life experiences. Or, it may be a relatively new discovery. Define it; create a vision of its reality; feel the passion. There you will see your true identity – the person with the dream and the passion to pursue it.

I admire people who are comfortable and confident in their own skins, who stand like a rock despite ridicule from others and the battering storms of life. They have scars from wounds they have suffered and no doubt, they will acquire many more. I have mine too and some sit on the surface of still tender wounds I sustained in my battle against the demands to discard my identity and lose myself in the concept of what others envisioned for me. I’m not perfect, I am me, core values intact, cognizant of my strengths, weaknesses and fears and my passions deep and strong.

Who are you? Are you drowning in the sea of sameness just to be accepted? Are you afraid to be yourself? Do you know who you are? Life is short. Claim your identity and live it boldly.