Who am I Today? Who do I want to be Tomorrow?
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Socrates
Our life is much like a puzzle. We put the pieces together to form our authentic selves. This blog is a summary of intentional living topics discussed in April.
Intentionally living your life is about deliberate choices for your physical and mental well-being. This blog is about designing our lives by the choices we make. Two factors are critical: (1) you understand who you are today, and (2) designing your identity for tomorrow. I am talking about tomorrow metaphorically, meaning many tomorrows: 1 year, 5 years, or 10 years.
Are you your job?
Are you your family?
Are you your faith?
What is your identity?
We all hold many roles in our lives: child, sibling, mother, father, grandparent, employee, boss. Our identity goes through many changes: graduation, marriage, divorce, birth, and death. Life is so daily that sometimes we can get lost in the flow, losing sight of the complete picture. We are a sum of many components: our DNA, culture, upbringing, religion, political views, education, and economic status. Think about the roles you currently inhabit. How have life events shaped your identity?
We are not all the same; we have different backgrounds and ideas of how life should be lived, how to worship, or how to vote. Yet, the basis of humanity is the same. We must meet our physical and mental needs to survive.
Life is a continuum, akin to a sliding scale. On the far right lies positivity, optimal health, and happiness; the far left signifies negativity. In pursuing optimal health and happiness, we want to enhance our lives and move our scale to the positive side. Your identity might shift after significant life events, graduation, or divorce. These major life events can affect where your health or happiness lies on the scale. Our identities are not fixed; they evolve as life progresses.
So, ask yourself questions: where are you on the sliding scale, and where do you want to be on the scale? What aspects of yourself can you use the scale to define?
Are you happy, or are you sad?
Are you healthy, or are you unhealthy?
Are you satisfied with your life, or do you want more?
Are your relationships solid, or do they need nurturing?
Hierarchy of Human Needs
The Hierarch of Human Needs is a theory proposed by psychologist Abraham Maslow. It outlines a five-tier model of human needs, which is often shown as a pyramid. Many of our intentional living goals or puzzle pieces are based on this model as it covers human growth and potential.
Puzzle Pieces of Your Intentional Living Plan
Before you can progress in life, it is essential to fulfill your fundamental needs. A solid foundation of our mental and physical well-being. Nutrition, movement, sleep, and staying hydrated are vital to everything else we do.
Spirituality is an essential area in which to set goals. Have you found your tribe, your social network that loves and supports you, that allows you to be your authentic self? Have you learned to regulate your emotions? How do you cope with challenges and setbacks? How resilient are you?
In summary, our choices define who we are. We decide what we eat, how much sleep we get, and how to deal with challenges and setbacks. The bottom role of this puzzle is where we move into self-actualization. There are other areas of your life where you can set goals, but these areas are central to developing a balanced plan for improvement.
Self-Actualization
We must understand our basic needs before we can move on in our lives. Self-actualization refers to realizing our full potential, achieving personal growth, and living authentically. At the top of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarch of Human Needs, we find self-actualization. This is where we move into a space where art, music, literature, architecture, and our intellectual life live. It is a space of innovation and creativity, a place of deep creative and professional work. It is a space of authenticity.
Lifestyle = Quality of Life = Flourishing
You have a choice: you can survive or thrive. Thriving involves finding balance in your life and consciously making decisions that move you in a positive direction. Listening to your inner voice can help guide your choices. Push out the negative thoughts when they come and redirect your inner talk to optimism.
Optimism and resilience can be learned. Optimism is a mindset that prompts hope and positivity, a belief in today and for a better tomorrow. Resilience is our inner strength during adversity. Building resilience can help you get through challenges and setbacks. The fuel your mind-body needs to reach your potential is the food you eat, how much you move, getting sufficient sleep, and water. Taking control of your emotions and ensuring your social connections helps build a support system internally and externally. We strongly desire belonging, and our emotions play a crucial role; our relationships are about emotions.
Finding faith is something larger than yourself and can be different for each individual. It may be a religious experience or more transcendental, but nourishing your soul is crucial to your personal development. Then, we can move to a higher level of existence where we play, work, and obtain knowledge, skills, and abilities. A place where we create art, music, theater, literature, and professional excellence. These places take us above basic survival to a place where we can flourish and reach our most authentic potential.
Conclusion
Who am I today? Who do I want to be tomorrow? What is the gap between who I am today and who I want to be tomorrow? This gap is where you want to focus. Is there room for improvement in your health? Set intentional goals for improvement or exercise so that you are healthier tomorrow, with better nutrition, movement, sleep, and hydration.
The complete picture brings you to balance, well-being, life satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment. Intentional living and designing your identity for tomorrow is an ongoing process.
My blog started in October 2023, and I walked you through setting goals in your life and developing a plan of action. I moved into intentional living in April, which is deliberately setting goals that will take you to the next level by taking responsibility for your life with no excuses. Some critical components of intentional living are consistency, daily routines, and rituals, finding gratitude, engaging socially, finding your passion, hope, and your purpose. Developing a positive mental attitude. Learning optimism and resilience.
See the possibilities! “Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Your mental blueprint and begin to build.” Robert Collier. The end goal is to visually see who you want to be tomorrow, what type of person you want to be, and how you want to fit into social circles and your community. It is about seeing all the puzzle parts and how to put them together to complete your picture.
Let’s Get Intentional!
For May, I will move into well-being, diving deeper into components that feed into our intentional goals with more details on nutrition, exercise, and sleep. I will talk about our emotional health, our physical well-being, the nurturing of our soul, creativity, and purpose in life. It is a personal journey that only you can direct. Connecting with others, reading, learning, and developing a deeper understanding of yourself are tools for your journey.
“A person is what they think about all day long.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Recommended Reading
Please go back and read my blogs, as they all walk you to this place where you start building your complete framework for reaching your potential.
Citations
All puzzle items were built in Word using Quino Al’s original art. Abraham Maslow’s pyramid was also designed in Word.