There can be no more daunting question to answer than to ask yourself, who am I? Then to answer it honestly.  Many people automatically list their job and family situation, but those outside influences on who you really are, not who you are.  Just in case you need to know who you are, I think you can start by recognizing who you are not. What are the factors that make you a unique individual living on this Earth?

Your Name is Not You

One of the first answers to this question is going to be our name. In reality, your name is a label that was randomly assigned to you by the fate of your birth.

Wouldn’t you be essentially the same person inside if you were born in another part of the country? Or another side of the world?  Your name doesn’t dictate your honesty, integrity, or kindness. Your name is just a label that you call yourself, yet it is not you. So Who are you?

Your Job is Not You

The second answer most people give to this question is a rundown of their current resume.

I am a physicist, and I work on quantum equations and string theory. This is another label that describes how you make money but not who you are.

In our society today, our identity is so closely related to what we do that often some people never get around this label to discover what is lying just behind it, waiting there to show the world who is there.  Who are you?

Where You Live is Definitely not You.

Another identification people often associate with is the roots of their existence.  I am from Greenville, Maine, and I went to college at the University of Maine at Farmington.

The mind designs these labels to give some glamorization to people and place them into convenient categories.

People will even fight people from another region. In fact, the bloodiest war in US History was fought largely due to geographical differences. Were those souls who fought and died in the Civil War really different because of where they happened to be born?

I think not.  Where you are from is a random aspect of your life due to your birth. Like your name, wouldn’t you still be the sensitive, caring, and kind person you are today regardless of where you were born or lived your life? Who are you?

Religion is not Identity.

Many people will identify themselves with their religion. I am a Catholic, a Buddhist, a Muslim, and so on.  How you relate to God is important for every person, whether they know it or not.

Yet your identity is not wrapped up in the label of religion either.  These are just different ways of looking at the same thing—the relationship between human and divine.

Yet this relationship still won’t tell anyone anything about you. People within the same religion are as different as each star in the sky.  Who are you?

Your Possessions are Not You

In this day of materialism, it seems to be bordering on religion. How much you can accumulate seems to be the most important thing to identify yourself with.  When you chase material self-esteem, no matter how much you accumulate, you will not be happy in the long run. Your possessions may be the envy of the world, and still, they will not fill up space inside of you. Because what you own is not who you are.  So who are you?

So Decide Who You Are

There is a significant mystery here to decide exactly who we are if you remove all of the labels and societal influences what is left inside of you.  What do you think? What do you feel? How do you love? How do you give?  Many questions may help you find your identity, or they may not.  I can only tell you for sure what you are not, and it is up to you to decide who you are.

Who are you?