Asking the Right Question

When you're little they ask you a question that for most of us had an impossible answer.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Sure, you'd guess something that sounded fun. For me it was an astronaut until I saw the Challenger explode. Then it was a doctor because they made lots of money. Then it was a chemical engineer although I had no idea what they did, but I liked chemistry.

Eventually, I landed on computer programmer because I always liked computers.

But I never became that. Sure I can code, but I never became a programmer.

Just like how I can write and design, but I never became those things either.

The question of what I wanted to be never had an answer that lasted more than a year.

This year I began to ask who am I because I figured if I could understand that then I'd figure out what to do.

But even that question led me down paths that ended up as dead ends.

So what is the right question?

Who are you becoming?

Who do I want to become is the question that I figured would lead me to where I wanted to go, but I didn't know who I wanted to become because I hadn't been there yet.

I thought I wanted to be a professional soccer player until I quit after my Junior season.

I thought I wanted to be a product manager until I couldn't land a job as one.

All the things that I thought I wanted to be never happened because I didn't know how I'd feel once I became them.

If I ever became them...

Which leads me to a question I can control.

Who am I becoming?

And that's the question I realize I should've been asking all along.

Because I could say I don't like the person that I'm becoming. But the truth is that I've been this person for far too long.

So the person I'm becoming is no different than the person that I am today and that's a huge problem.

Because I don't like being this person but it's easier to be this person than to stumble and try to find the next person when I don't know how that next person is.

That's why this question is so important.

I don't know the end

It's okay to not know the end. But it's not okay to not understand the journey.

When I sleep right, eat right, workout right, and enjoy time with my family then I like the person that I'm becoming.

When I'm not doing those things I don't like the person I'm becoming.

So as long as I do the things that help me enjoy the person that I'm becoming then I should be alright.

And that's the whole purpose of the 52 Lives.

What things can I test to see if they help me become the person I like being. Some of them probably will. A lot of them probably won't.

But if I can live 52 Lives then I figure one of them is going to be amazing.

And that's all I need.