Become Who You Are by Learning Who You Are
And life will be nothing short of a fucking adventure — lessons on finding your purpose from the lives of history’s great masters
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Each of us is born with innate curiosity. As kids we yearn to know how the world works, so we eat some grass to see how it tastes and create intricate worlds with nothing more than sheer imagination.
Before we started caring what others think, we put our thoughts on the page, our recipe in the oven, our sense of self on the line. A child’s spirit knows no bounds.
But as we get older, we feel rejected if our innate talents and interests don’t garner popularity, which is the worst thing for a kid to feel.
We question who we truly are.
At a certain point, maybe it's high school or college or beyond, we have to decide if we’d rather fit in or become the unique individual that our world desperately needs.
Who are you?
A seed striving to blossom. A river seeking the ocean. An individual note, looking for its song. We aren’t born knowing who we are, like an IKEA dresser with simple instructions for assembly.
We learn.
We discover who we are by listening to our inner voice, despite the noise telling us what we should be; by following our childlike curiosity, no matter where it leads; by dedicating ourselves to something that genuinely interests us, and by taking one step after the other, no matter how much we stumble.
Legendary writer Robert Greene writes in his book Mastery:
“At your birth a seed is planted. That seed is your uniqueness. It wants to grow, transform itself, and flower to its full potential. It has a natural, assertive energy to it. Your Life’s Task is to bring that seed to flower, to express your uniqueness through your work. You have a destiny to fulfill. The stronger you feel and maintain it — as a force, a voice, or in whatever form — the greater your chance for fulfilling this Life’s Task and achieving Mastery.”
Our life’s task is to become who we are, by learning who we are.
