In our quest for self-identity, we very often ask ourselves: What are our talents? Who are we? The answer to the latter question is used to base the major decisions that we make in life. And this is the same question I had largely been preoccupying myself with for the past couple of years. Until today that I began to realize that I had probably been asking myself the wrong question all along. It isn't who we are that should decide what we do, but what we do that decides who we are. And it isn't simply who we are, but who we are to become that is the question. It is a reinforcing loop.
It is thus that our every decision at every moment becomes imperative. Change our mindset and the way we think, challenge our own assumptions and everything external to us changes. As above so below, as within so without, goes the Hermetic philosophy. We base our actions according to the perception of who we are as individuals. Whether as someone who is capable of change and control, or as someone who resigns to fate and the tides of life, it is our choice. And our life reflects that choice.
I had been so focused on inquiry and introspection that I lost sight on what really mattered. That we have a choice as to what we are to be. That who we hope to become is equally a part of ourselves as who we "are". Our perception of who we "are" is constantly evolving. Though I had acknowledged this, the entire realization of what it entails has yet to hit me.
Interesting that our every choice and decision has its set of consequences. Every step we take not only takes us one step further on, but also one step backward and away from who we once were. As we immerse ourselves in what we do, slowly and imperceptibly we change and turn into someone else. Someone perhaps whom we do not recognize. That which we admire is also that which seeks expression within us, it seems.