In a conversation with my brother Yesterday evening, I was talking about how job related pressure was getting to me, and how I wanted out. It may have been a bit surprising seeing as I pursued the job pretty seriously and gleeful resigned from my previous working engagement. Haven spent just a month and two weeks post 3 month Training, my brother was having none of it.
"You are what you do", was the most striking statement he made in our conversation and keeps ruminating in my thoughts. While I initially strongly disagreed, it didn't take too long before my thoughts started analyzing and philosophizing the statement.
We are indeed defined primary by what we do, regardless of whatever we think of ourselves. Like it or not that identity shapes our behaviors, and determines the kind of life we live - from relationships to choices. It is considered abnormal to deviate from this identity all in the name of stamping our individuality, so we are compelled to go with a chosen flow, making the initial identity all the more important.
How many of us can truly say we have lived life according to our wishes? Many of us are simply swooped along with the flow and take whatever we can get. While it isn't bad to simply go with the flow, it does feel somehow special to have a solid identity from the onset.
Unfortunately at this instance I may not know what that feels like, as my efforts at living consciously keeps failing. Right now I will probably be known as the identity thrown on me by life through my work.