I’ve just begun a “Yellow” journey (see the Yellow site) and somehow this has me thinking about identity.
“Know Thyself” is one of the most important pieces of wisdom left to us by Socrates.
“Be More You” is the phrase that Ed Percival left to me as my mentor (see post here) and to so many others, a distillation of all of his boundless wisdom.
As I sat drafting this, I had an impromptu call with a past client who is ready to start working together again. At this stage, their focus is to be clear on what they want next, and to do that they are going to take a few weeks to intropsect before we begin to meet up.
As to “who am I?”, we are so used to giving ourselves identities based on our job, our relationship status, being a parent and so on and so forth.
To that I’d add nationality, within which I am a Caymanian, a Scot and now, increasingly, a Londoner. Where do I feel most myself though? Cayman, without question. I lived there for the vast majority of my adult life and when I get off the plane I simply feel I am home. Scotland, and particularly Edinburgh, feels similar to me, but not quite as strongly so, as I haven’t lived there since I was in my early 20s.
I’m also crystal clear that being a father is a huge part of who I am.
One other element is that I also relate to myself as fit, strong, athletic. I did feel challenged around that on my health journey from March to July (with colon cancer diagnosis, surgery then chemotherapy treatment), and I don’t know how I would cope if I was unable to be active and fit at some point.
So, this post is apropos nothing other than that a) I am musing on this topic for myself, and b) perhap in sharing this it may help you consider “who am I?” for yourself,
The more we know ourselves, the better able to we are to support and lead others to be their best selves.