How To Find Yourself | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Entertainment

How To Find Yourself

It is hard to navigate through your life as an adult, or make adult decisions if you do not know who you are.

9
How To Find Yourself

As a young adult who just recently discovered the building blocks to discovering who I am, I feel obligated to share my wisdom with others who feel like they are following a path, as opposed to creating their own trail. Once you deviate away from a path to create your own, you then make discoveries for yourself, reach obstacles along the way, but you inevitably look back, and see something that is nothing but your own.

First off, finding out who you are is not for the faint-hearted. It is incredibly hard work. Self-discovery is like earning an A on a test: If you are not willing to study your ass off, you don’t deserve the grade. So, if you even plan on going through this process, get ready for the long haul.To start this process, first and foremost, you need to be alone. When I say alone, I mean you need to be out of a relationship, not dating, not in a friends-with-benefits situation – nothing. It is impossible to focus solely on yourself when you have someone else blurring your vision. Someone else cannot help you on your process to finding out who you are. When someone else is in your life in a romantic way, you lean on them more than you think you do. They are always there to pick you up when you fall, are there when you need a shoulder to cry on and tell you everything you want/need to hear. This is a huge problem for anyone on the journey to self-discovery. You need to pick yourself up, you need to soothe yourself when you’re crying, you need to learn what to tell yourself when you are in a tough spot. Someone else is a crutch to any progress you may have made. Someone else could also be clouding your vision so much that you think you know yourself (because you live vicariously through them) when in reality, if they were to leave, you have absolutely no idea what to do because you feel like a lost soul.

After you get the “crutches” out of your life, it is finally time to start the foundation to working on yourself. This is the most important part of the process. This is also the most terrifying part of the process. When you do not know who you are, the acceptance to anything of self-creation is frightening. You need to figure out here how you define yourself – what is important to you. This is not someone else’s responsibility to help you. It would defeat the purpose of finding yourself if you went to close friends and family, and asked the question “What do you think of me?” A good way to do this is to write a list, evaluate it, then you have a small part of your foundation – how you define yourself.

After laying down the foundation of how to define yourself, you then have to do one of the hardest things even the most level headed person has trouble doing – what are your faults, do those faults define you and do you want those faults to define you? It takes a special person to sit down and accurately write a list of all of their faults honestly. That is truly someone who knows him or herself.

Next, you need to think about your future – how you want to spend it, and how you plan to make the most of everyday. This also takes a lot of time. 

Everything that I have talked about is simply the foundation for self-discovery. The real work comes after you have laid down the foundation – just like if you were building a house – once the foundation is laid down, there is still lots of work to come. You don’t wake up one morning saying, “Hey, I think I know who I am today!!” The real work is something no one can tell you, or help you with. That would ruin the purpose of figuring out who you are if someone spoon-fed it to you. As I stated earlier, this process is not for the faint-hearted. If you truly want to find yourself, if you truly want to live life to the fullest and if you want to live life knowing exactly you are where you should be, put in the work to get there. I promise you it will be worth it.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
friends
tv.com

"Friends" maybe didn’t have everything right or realistic all the time, but they did have enough episodes to create countless reaction GIFs and enough awesomeness to create, well, the legacy they did. Something else that is timeless, a little rough, but memorable? Living away from the comforts of home. Whether you have an apartment, a dorm, your first house, or some sort of residence that is not the house you grew up in, I’m sure you can relate to most of these!

Keep Reading...Show less
man working on a laptop
Pexels

There is nothing quite like family.

Family is kinda like that one ex that you always find yourself running back to (except without all the regret and the angsty breakup texts that come along with it).

Keep Reading...Show less
bored kid
Google Images

No matter how long your class is, there's always time for the mind to wander. Much like taking a shower or trying to fall asleep, sitting in a classroom can be a time when you get some of your best ideas. But, more than likely, you're probably just trying to mentally cope with listening to a boring lecturer drone on and on. Perhaps some of the following Aristotle-esque thoughts have popped into your head during class.

Keep Reading...Show less
Entertainment

Advice To Live By As Told By Bob's Burgers

The Belchers hold the key to a better life.

1174
Bob's Burgers
Adult Swim

Bob's Burgers is arguably one of the best and most well-written shows on tv today. That, and it's just plain hilarious. From Louise's crazy antics to Tina's deadpan self-confidence, whether they are planning ways to take over school or craft better burgers, the Belchers know how to have fun. They may not be anywhere close to organized or put together, but they do offer up some wise words once and awhile.

Keep Reading...Show less
Rory Gilmore

We're in college, none of us actually have anything together. In fact, not having anything together is one of our biggest stressors. However, there's a few little things that we do ever so often that actually make us feel like we have our lives together.

1. Making yourself dinner

And no this does not include ramen or Annie's Mac & Cheese. Making a decent meal for yourself is one of the most adult things you can do living on campus. And the food is much better than it would be at the dining hall.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments