Can you answer the question – Who am I? What comes to mind when I ask this question. If I were to guess right most of the things that came to mind were made in comparison to others. Some of you might have even compiled lists of all the things you are not and forgotten to identify who you are.

Comparing yourself to others can impair your decision making process. So I ask again, who are you? You have heard it said time and time again that you can become whoever or whatever you want to be. If this were true, then why haven’t you achieved everything you “want to be”? What are you missing that is keeping from becoming the person you dream of. And an even better question is why you are the person you are today? When you were a child, you had people carefully writing your script. A lot of us grow up believing we have to live up to that script. The thought of changing this pre-written script scares us. So we go along life, never questioning and just barely existing. So I ask again, who are you? Are you the script that others have written for you?

As you grow, you experience life: you learn to love, cry, get angry, laugh, sing, etc. The depth of human emotions never ends. We learn to identify with these emotions. For instance you might call yourself an angry person if you cannot control your temper? But are you really the sum total of your emotions? So I ask again who are you?

As we go through life, we are taught to fear things. We also experience adverse conditions that cause us to fear. We learn to be controlled by our fears. But are we really the sum total of our fears. So I ask again, who are you?

All through life we are told we are not good enough to become the person we dream of. We learn to be handicapped by other people’s opinion of us. We fail to realize that people often place the same limitations on us they put on themselves. So we learn to be handicapped by other people’s limitations of us. But are you really the sum total of your handicaps. So I ask again, who are you?

Finally, we think we figured it out. The happiest people in the world seem to be the ones that have the most money. We therefore aspire to build more wealth because we think if we had more wealth we will be more respected and well liked. But are you really the sum total of your assets. So I ask again, who are you?

In search of this question, some will read books, attend conferences, go to religious establishments, get mentors, etc. They study and begin to connect with their teachers. They form a belief system which begins to form the person they become. So who are you? You are the sum total of your belief system. Your belief system drives what you do and who you become.

You do what you do because of who you are.

You are who you are because you belief

Ultimately, you can only do if you are

First you must become before you do.

To become you must first belief

“As a man thinketh in his heart so he is”.

Solomon in Proverbs 4, warns us to guard our heart for out of it flows the issue of life. If you let garbage into your heart, garbage will also flow out of your heart.

So what or who do you belief in? Everyone beliefs in something whether consciously or unconsciously. The problem is people keep their minds so busy; they fail to identify the answers to these questions. A faulty belief system equates a shaky identity. You live without any conviction and you simply move with the crowd. So I ask again, what or who do you believe in. Understanding the answer to this question is the key to understanding who you are.

Let me give you an example of how to answer the question. Who am I? First I identify what or who I believe in. I believe in Jesus Christ and through Christ I gain my identity. I am a child of God, truly blessed and highly favored. So because I operate from a position of light (Jesus is the light of the world), I have learned to view the world through Christ’s teachings. So now your turn, who are you?

Until you know how to answer the question, who am I, you will never find contentment in life. You will move from idea to idea, hoping happiness will be found in your next idea. Any businesses you start will never give you satisfaction, because they are disconnected from your identity. As a lifestyle business owner, the identity of your business flows from your identity. So how can you find your business purposes if you do not know who you are. Notice, I did not say anything about money here because it is very possible to get rich without knowing who you are. Financial wealth has nothing to do with the abundant life. The abundant life is defined as contentment in all circumstances. A person with abundant life knows how to handle life’s successes and failures.

Dare to be different: First you must know who you are. A person who does not know who they are often envies others. Envy comes from false comparisons and moves us far away from our true identity. When we envy, our identity often changes depending on who we are talking to. Envy causes us to base our actions on what everyone else is doing. When we envy we lack originality.

Don’t try to become something you are not: You were “beautifully and wonderfully made”. Take some time and identify who that beautiful and wonderful person is.