Who Do You Think You Are?

Who do you think you are?

I once heard someone say: “I’m not who I think I am and I’m not who you think I am, but I am who you think I think I am.” For many years I thought about that, trying to make sense of it and wondering what it said about me and others. Recently my fourteen year old daughter has become caught up in that same game and while it is okay for a teen to go through this as part of growing up, there comes a point when we must move on or become limited by the quandary.

I believe that many people spend too much time trying to be something or someone they are not and for all the wrong reasons. We are not our results or our upbringing. We are not our car, our house, our job or our education.

We seem to identify ourselves with the things that we have achieved or the failures we have experienced. There is a long list of people who have changed the way the world thinks and functions all of who had to overcome a major flaw in their lives and had to shift their thinking in order to be make the most of the opportunities they had. Albert Einstein is one of histories greatest scientists and he also had Dyslexia: Einstein showed language impairments at a very young age. His speech was severely delayed. He only began to talk at the age of three, and had trouble with language throughout elementary school. During a parent meeting, the Headmaster told Einstein's parents that he did not have the ability to be a successful professional. He recommended that Einstein attend a trade school. In fact, his teachers thought he was borderline retarded. We all know of his achievements, thank god he didn't listen to his well meaning critics.

"Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." This quote can be attributed to Thomas Edison. At the age of 12 Edison was thrown out of school because he was thought to be dumb. He then went on to patent 1,093 inventions.

Picaso, Da Vinci, Richard Branson and Whoopi Goldberg all had to deal with dyslexia on their way to being who they became and list goes on.

Winston Churchill was a poor student had a speech impediment and came from a dysfunctional family. He attended three different schools and was said to have little chance of amounting anything. History tells us, that we in Great Britain were fortunate to have had him at the helm during World War Two, his belief and undying courage at times were all that remained between Great Britain and surrender. In fact as a small Island Nation it may well be said that those of that generation were far greater than the limitations which should have held them back.

The point is, that we all have one thing we are born to do and with some encouragement, which, we may have to supply ourselves and some hard work we can all rise above the limited person who we think we are. I believe that every person and especially every child should be encouraged to rise to the level of their gifts and their potential. The challenge is overcoming who we think we are and becoming the person who we know we must be! A few years ago I had the privilege of being part of a team who was on an event which hosted Sir Ranulph Fiennes as the guest speaker. Since that event he attempted to climb Everest and it almost killed him, he refused to submit to his history and his failure and went back a second time and conquered the great mountain. He lived up to his possibility, his potential and his authentic self!

Live passionately, ask why!