When we were children and in our teens, people would ask, ?What do you want to do when you grow up?? Does that sound familiar to you too? The question never was stated, ?WHO do you want to be?? meaning ?What sort of person do you wish to become?? Was the question never put because there was no point in asking since it was believed you did not have any control over this? Or was it because it sounded as if you were being asked, ?Who do you wish to emulate?? Either way, it was always about ?doing? and not ?being?.



In this day and age, it is becoming somewhat more common for people to think in terms of ?who? they want to be or ?who? they are as opposed to what they ?do?. It is very reassuring to see this shift because what you do in your life isn't what matters'it?s who you are being that is important. Look at people who have made a difference and although they may be famous for what they have ?done?, it was the ?being? of them that allowed that difference to occur.

To live your life's purpose, you need to take a close look at who you are being from the early stages of life through the end of your life. It's not just a one-time question to be answered; you are constantly changing and evolving and therefore, giving who you are at your core, your authentic self, every chance possible to shine through.

Getting in touch with your feelings and discovering your authentic self leads you to the ?doing?. In other words finding out ?who? you are precedes knowing what you want to ?do?. The inner yearnings and passions come from your authentic ?me? and from there the enjoyable ?doing? flows forth. The secret to the easier path seems to be in letting the process take place in this order rather than ?doing? in order to find out who you are.

We find it very encouraging to see someone as high profile as Maria Shriver stating the same beliefs as ours. She recently disclosed that she felt lost and didn't know what she was supposed to do in her new book titled Just Who Will You Be? She was referring to the time after she left her network TV job. After twenty-five years she left her long-standing successful career because her husband was the newly elected governor of California and she wanted to avoid a conflict of interest with his position. Since then she has learned exactly what we contend, that it isn't only when we are finishing school that it is important to ask ourselves who we want to be but at every stage of our lives. Living authentically, true to who you are, is life-sustaining.

There are many different ways of discovering ?who you want to be? including identifying your key values that represent your authentic self, meditating in a way that allows you to meet the essence of who you are, reflecting on experiences when you felt fully alive and so on.

So, we ask you, ?WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE??

2008 Copyright Lynn Hull and Julie Molner