KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND BE IT!

I was sitting with a friend in a high school gym watching his son play basketball. The talented fourteen-year-old came down the court with the ball. Unguarded, he had a clear shot at the basket. He hesitated, looked up at his father in the stands, and promptly passed the ball off to someone else. When the son saw his father watching him, he became afraid to fail and let someone else take the shot. My friend was horrified. He stood up in the stands and yelled in frustration, “Know who you are and be it!" My friend knew his son, and knew he could make the shot. He didn’t need to pass the ball off, but he lacked the confidence to take the shot himself. My friend was telling his son to know himself - his gifts and abilities - and to be that person, no matter who was watching.

Why is it that so few of us - even as adults - know who we are, or have the confidence to be it? Why do we have a difficult time identifying our passion, or the core that drives us? Why don’t we know the core of the person God created us to be? For each of us there is someone - perhaps a voice inside of us - yelling, “Know who you are and be it!” Many of us have taken various personality profile tests or done some career testing. These tests are very helpful in describing our personality, or our giftedness for a certain career. They do not, however, tell us “who” we are; they only tell us one piece of “what” we are. For example, a personality test might describe us as an extrovert or an introvert. This description is helpful to us, but it describes “what” we are not “who” we are. Another test might tell us that we have the gifts for accounting, but again, this tells us about “what” we’re good at, not “who” we are.

In order for us to begin the journey of visioneering, we need the right starting point. We need to start at the beginning, and unearth the core of our being. We need to discover - or rediscover - the person who God created. We need to identify what I call our “Core Motivator.” Our “Core Motivator” describes, “why we do what we do the way we do it.” Once we have looked inside ourselves and discovered who God created us to be, then we are ready to start setting a path for our lives. It is essential that we begin with the right starting point.