Being yourself begins with knowing yourself

I took the ACT test in 1983. I didn’t do well. The career aptitude portion, an assessment of whether I should work with people, data, things, or ideas, was even worse. I was plotted in the middle as “Indeterminate.” Ugh!

Decades later, I realized that the test was assessing for depth not breadth. I have interest in all four areas, yet I am neither passionate nor highly skilled in any. I am a generalist and it took years to figure that out.

The point of this story is to emphasize how hard it is to know yourself, let alone, be yourself. Here is what I learned about both:

✅ Knowing yourself takes trial and error
✅ Imitating others obscures and delays honest introspection
✅ Being comfortable with your limitations is as important as admitting where you excel
✅ Finding a friend, mentor, or manager to help is life-changing
✅ Aptitude and attitude usually go hand-in-hand (you tend to like what you are good at and vice versa)
✅ Getting started early is key… and ask for help
✅ Also, being a generalist is a specialty 😁

Do yourself the favor of a lifetime - get to know yourself so you can start being yourself. It’s glorious.