From the moment we’re born, we spend our lives trying to figure out who we are. Some people are lucky, they seem to come into the world already knowing who they are, what they want, and what life is all about.
Well, you could say that they’re lucky, but they’re also missing out on the adventure of figuring all that stuff out. So while you might be the former person, it’s by no means a bad thing!
But figuring out who you are is a huge puzzle. It’s not as simple as just picking an archetype and going with it. There are steps involved. Luckily, we’re here to help and can break it down as much as possible.
Figure Out Your Personality
Your personality is the biggest part of who you are. It’s your core. Personality is the way that you think and feel about things. The way you think and feel has a lot to do with how you will live in this life.
If your thinking and feelings aren’t aligned then you may find yourself living more than one life or even several. This could mean being someone else entirely, which would explain why some people have so many different personalities.
So first off, figure out what kind of personality you are, because it’s going to play a big role in where you go from here.
Personality Types
Above we’ve linked to one of the most accurate and scientific personality quizzes out there. Developed in 1923, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator is one of the most conclusive personality quizzes to date.
The MBTI was created by Isabel Myers and her husband Robert F. Cushing in order to create a tool to determine the best career for each individual. The questionnaire divides humans into four distinct groups: extrovert, introvert, feeling or sensing, and judging.
These groups were found to correspond directly with four types of jobs: analyst, manager, artist, and artisan. It doesn’t claim to be the only type of personality test available, but it does claim to be the most complete. Nowadays, it’s more used as a singular personality tool.
This quiz is designed to be taken multiple times throughout one’s life. Not only will the results change throughout your lifetime, but so will your perception of the results as you grow older.
Figure Out Your Career
Your career is one of the most important things you’ll do. You could end up working your whole life on one career path, so you need to be sure it’s the right one.
Because your career is such a large part of your life, it’s also a huge part of who you are. If you don’t like your job, that’s nearly half of your entire existence spent unhappy, slowly becoming somebody you don’t want to be.
You might see yourself getting stuck in a rut, spending years in the same job, never really growing, even though you keep putting yourself in the position to succeed again and again.
This could lead you to quit or lose motivation altogether. To avoid even getting to that point, make sure you’ve picked the right career.
But what if you don’t know what the right career is because you don’t know who you are? Simple. Try this.
This is a career quiz designed by the academics behind the Princeton Review. If it sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a part of Princeton University. So you know this quiz has more than enough academia and research to back it up.
Figure Out Your Future
Once you’ve figured out your personality and career, those are two very large chunks of what makes you up. But human beings are more than just their jobs and what they think and feel.
A huge part of who you are is based on how you act and the things that you do. You may not realize it at first, because our actions are almost autonomous, but what you do shows a lot about who you are. The way you interact with other people is probably the biggest clue to figuring out who you are.
You’re able to use these activities to build and shape who you would want to become. For instance, you can start creating habits for socializing that will help you meet new friends and find a partner.
These activities are also great ways to figure out some goals that you’d love to achieve. From there you can begin to plan out how you can accomplish them. That’s half the battle right there.
Final Thoughts
By building these habits into your life, you’re more than ‘figuring out who you are, you’re creating yourself, which might take a lot more effort than just ‘figuring it out’ but is a lot more rewarding too.
Don’t sweat it if you’re not fully realized, as this is the case for most of us. As we mentioned earlier… It’s all about the journey!
