Who are you? It's a question that we get asked a thousand times a day in so many different ways. How do you define who you are? Most are quick with an answer, something that describes what they do. If your job has you constructing buildings, you might say that you are a construction worker. Or, if you travel from house to house cleaning, you might say that you are a housekeeper or you are a professional sales person. It’s easy to define who you are by what you do. We make that choice every day.
Many of you may remember the rock band from the 60’s The Who. Their song “Who Are You?” has some fantastic lyrics:
“I stretched back and I hiccuped/ and looked back on my busy day/ Eleven hours in the Tin Pan/ God, there's got to be another way/ Well, who are you?”
For those you who don't know, the Tin Pan was an area originally located in New York where composers and publishers of music do business. These lyrics show that at least this band understood a fundamental truth: What you do doesn't define who you are. It's something that took me a while to realize.
The truth is, what you do is defined by who you are, not the other way around. A construction worker works on building skyscrapers because he has the skills, the vision, and the drive to make towering buildings first drawn on paper, come to life. A teacher inspires children not because he or she is a teacher, but rather because he or she has the inborn desire and passion to bring out the best in them and what they do.
In the Book of Proverbs it says “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” What is on your mind most days? What lies in your heart, what is the one thing that is guiding you to be what you are truly meant to be? Sometimes it is hard to know; there are so many things in this world that can be a distraction. There has been many times when I looked at where I was at the end of the day and wondered “How did I get here?” It was simple. The distractions of life had led me away from where my heart was telling me to go. It happens to all of us at one time or another. Thankfully, if you fill your mind, you heart, and your life with good ideas, people and strategies, what you want to become will be realized sooner than you think.
How many hours are you spending in your “Tin Pan” each day?