Who Are You?

Today’s world is busting at the seams with all forms of idealistic visionaries trying to make our mark. Popular terms used to describe are entrepreneurs and influencers. Less attractive translates to hustlers on the Internet market scene trying to peddle wares of self-development, transformation and dream manifestation. What distinguishes one from the other?

Surely it must be more than just a tally of social media followers. It seems to me that ultimately it boils down to how effectively and successfully we manage to craft our stories.

Take mine for example: 25 years of UN service, coupled with 15 years of mindfulness through yoga and a whole lot of creative energy in between. When we meet supposedly like-minded beings, the gauging, mundane question is: ‘what do you do?’

I cringe whenever I hear this as sub-consciously it brings up feelings of unworthiness and lack. Yet, my glossy dossier of life experience, travel and such infused with my passions and visions thankfully quickly over-ride my feelings of self-doubt filling me with the re-assurance that everything in my life has successfully prepared me for who I am.

What might one discover about me if that question were re-framed to ask: ‘what is your purpose?’ Many modern-day professionals no longer fit into a tidy box of a singular job description. Self-awareness gives rise to enhanced consciousness, which oftentimes reveals more than meets the naked eye.

A quest for a purpose-filled life often means that we’re always ‘on the clock.’ In other words, there’s no ‘punch out time’ when one chooses to live on purpose and with passion. Work is play and play is work. Immense fulfilment is gained from our livelihood, which brings forth abundance in all areas of our lives. 

As a transformation coach, regularly I meet people who have quit their ‘day jobs’ in search of depth and meaning to their lives. I certainly left the organizational confines of a seemingly respectable job for similar reasons. Who I was choosing to be and what I did for a living didn’t set my heart on fire. I knew what I knew and I knew what I didn’t know. What I’ve learned in the last six years – since taking an insane leap of faith into the vortex of the unknown – is that my richest possibilities are born from this limitless well.

Perhaps seduced by a plethora of self-development gurus, I focused on getting to know, understand and love myself. Love? Where is there room for this in the workplace? And yet in its absence, there is ‘no-thing.’

Nowadays I fill my heart and my time with my purpose: supporting able and willing beings to step into the fullest version of themselves. How? One way is offering yoga classes to a vast cross-section of ‘self-seekers’ and offering experiential mindfulness workshops that support this process. The demographic that my services attract are just like me: educated, healthy and curious beings wanting to ‘step out of the proverbial societal box,’ the one built during their formative years and into the expansiveness that growth offers and delivers.

Rather than what I do, I prefer to present who I am being: ‘A global catalyst for change’ usually starts my elevator pitch. This, having sparked genuine interest, I dare to take you on a journey – from whence I have come to where I am now.

Living, leading and loving by example, I trust that you’re able to pause long enough and let your own heart lead you.