Hey ya’ll – Happy Saturday!

I seem to have been reading a lot this week about identity: who we are, ego, where we find our motivation, where we get our gratification, how we get lost in certain identities. It kind of seems like the universe is trying to tell me something here. I’ve been processing it a bit and it kind of all hit home as I was sitting with Maven watching Ice Age: The Meltdown.

If you haven’t seen the movie, I won’t ruin it for you. It’s really cute. Or at least it was really cute when Maven finally switched from her obsession with Frozen and started watching this instead. Now, I seem to only catch the same parts over and over {and over} again. Besides the fact that Maven does this extremely adorable sloth dance {for real, I should probably post a video of it because Mark and I were dying laughing at this!}, she is also very in tune with the characters. She understands the conflict and questions it.

Manny, the main mammoth character in the storyline, is ecstatic to find Ellie, another mammoth, because he thought he was on the verge of extinction. Clearly you can understand his excitement. Ellie, though, had a traumatic experience growing up and was graciously taken in to a family of possums. She became one of them. A mammoth became a possum. She has a little identity crisis going on and Manny tries to help her through it. … And Maven totally understands. She has actually turned to me and said, “Mom, I’m not a possum. And Ellie’s not a possum.” We spent some time talking about it (again) and as she went back into laser-beam-eyes-on-the-television mode, I sat back and thought about this message the universe is sending me.

We live in this world of so many influences. Those outside influences absolutely impact who we are. Like Ellie, we are shaped by those around us and the things we associate ourselves with. There’s no denying that. As a mom, I look to other moms to help shape my mothering skills and I absorb myself in my children. As a professional, I look to outside sources to learn, grow and succeed. As a runner, I seek challenges and motivating factors to keep me engaged. As a wife, sister, daughter and friend, I extend myself to others to show them kindness and love. The conclusion I’m drawing upon in this message from the universe, is to not get lost in the loud, influential world or get lost in having so many parts to your identity. Just find your own way of being the best version of you. Beat to your own drum and magnify the good in you.

So, I challenge you this weekend, to think of who you are. As Seth Godin shared as a simple self-test: Visualize exaggerating the things that people associate with you. Does that make you a better version of yourself?

And as I reply, “If so, make that the truest possible version of who you are.”

XO

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