Who are you? What do you want in life? These are questions that everyone should ask themselves, and the answers can be different for everyone. The first step to success is knowing who you are and what makes you happy. Only then can you start pursuing goals that will benefit you rather than someone else. Making decisions based on your identity allows you to stay true to yourself while advancing in life. This blog post will explore the importance of building identity and how it can help you achieve your goals.

Do you know who you are?

Personal identity describes who we are. It is comprised of several things that make up our individuality. They can be the basic things you usually see in data sheets or when you fill out forms, such as name, age, sex, height, weight, nationality, religion, etc. However, our unique identity can also comprise more profound things, such as values, interests, goals, political stances, etc. We gain the things that make up our identity over time and depend on how we experience things as we grow up. They can come from our evaluation of our self-identity or the things others use to describe us. Our authentic self can be a product of internal and external assessments or come entirely from one side. Our sense of self can be problematic if a conflict arises between how others know us and how we see ourselves. We must have a firm grasp of our identity as a strong sense of it will help us pursue goals, make beneficial decisions, and follow what we want. It is possible to pursue goals and interests according to how others expect us to. Still, we may question whether we are doing the right thing or experience not getting any feelings of happiness or fulfillment later. On the other hand, you may want to try to build your identity and have a stronger sense of yourself to figure out what you want to do, and several things can help you achieve this.

1. Figure out the most important things you want for yourself

There's nothing wrong with trying to get ideas from others regarding what we want to do and like. We can get inspiration and ideas from others and see if we can enjoy them the same way. If not, perhaps we can identify what makes us happy and fulfilled. Pursuing the values that we feel a strong attachment to, goals that we think are worth pursuing, and hobbies and passions that make us happy are some things we can try to figure out to build our identity. We can understand these things as we go through life and identify the things that resonate most with us. From there, we can start developing these things until we realize that these are the things we want to pursue because we like them and not because others told us to do them.

2. Make goals that are worth pursuing

Goals motivate us and keep us working on something that can benefit our well-being. We can also boost our self-esteem if we succeed in accomplishing them. Goals can be something we thought of pursuing because we saw others do it, and perhaps we saw how happy and fulfilled they were after achieving them. The same thing can happen to you; if it doesn't, you can try creating goals for yourself. The goals that you make for yourself should be something that resonates with your values and interests. You will have a higher chance of achieving goals if you like what you are doing and their worth is something that you recognize. Additionally, they will be more fulfilling if you know you have set them by yourself according to your values and interests.

3. Make your own decisions

Decision-making can be challenging, but it can build our identity if we make them proficiently. On the other hand, it's normal to have some self-doubt because there are a lot of uncertainties that can occur after making a decision, no matter how well-planned we make them. We can ask others for their opinion and see how things may work. However, we can also try making decisions ourselves and have the self-confidence to push through and see what our choices will do for us. We can feel proud if we succeed with our decisions, and even if they fail, our choices can become learning experiences that will help us take responsibility for our actions and thoughts.

4. Make time to know yourself

If we want to know someone better, we can spend time with the person and ask them questions about various things. We can also do the same for ourselves. Sometimes, we get too busy with life and try to keep up with many things that we may lose our identity as we try catching up with all the trending ideas and demands of others from us. However, if we want to be transparent with our feelings and have a strong sense of self, we can take a break from all the busyness and spend time to know ourselves or evaluate if we are still the person we know we are. You can check and see if you are doing things because you like them or if the goals you are pursuing are still worth it. It is essential to check on yourself now and then to see if you are okay and if everything happening around you is what you want.

5. Express your style in various things that you do

Your personality and uniqueness can show in how you do things and let people see your self-expression. You can express your identity by what clothes you wear, how you do things in a specific way, how you talk, your perspectives about different things, etc. If you show your authentic self through such things, people will have an idea of who you are, and you will also establish your identity better by letting it show with your public self. Your self-esteem can be better if you can freely express yourself.

Your identity matters

Everyone is unique, and knowing what sets us apart from others can be beneficial. We can feel more fulfilled by what we do and think if it's coming from ourselves instead of only being told by others what to do. On the other hand, it can be challenging to build our identity if we rely only on external assessments by others, as people may have different things to say about us, which can conflict with how we know ourselves. We must have strong beliefs about who we are because even if people's opinions vary, we can always know what is true and false. We can gain a better direction on what goals and actions we should do and what things we like if we know ourselves well and continue building upon it for personal growth.