No other time than January 1st or when applying for a job is trying to answer the question "Who are you?" more thought provoking, frustrating, and exhilarating.
Whether taking an introspective gaze into your hopes, dreams, aspirations and goals for the new year or charting a new professional path, answering the following questions can be a daunting task: do I follow the road that is "tried and true" or do I (dare I?) take a leap of faith into the unknown, "rerouting" to take the fork in the road that leads to passion and uncertainty?
I honestly do not know which option is scarier...the same path or a new one. Known or unknown? Safe or unpredictable? I do know, however, which one gets my heart racing and blood bumping with an excited, childlike enthusiasm versus a stress-induced apathy.
While still pondering and contemplating resolutions of 2014, fresh starts of our recent move and next steps in my career, I realized that perhaps my emphasis should not be on the words that follow the inquisitive questions; that I am as much the punctuation at the end of the sentence as I am the preceding words. My "aha moment" came when I looked at the above questions through the perspective of an empty frame. An empty picture frame holds endless possibilities and can be changed frequently. It is when I chose the path that makes my inner child squeal with delight that I remember most. So, as I fill in the blank to answer "Who are you?," I want to be brave enough to make sure whatever I write has an exclamation mark at the end.
I am so very thankful that each day and each year we are given a blank frame, per se, to determine our "picture." How are you filling in your blank and does your answer warrant an exclamation mark, a question mark or a period? Based on your answer, you may want to do some editing.
