I am & I have

 “I am what I am. So take me as I am” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Who are you? It is the question we are asked the most in our lives, and perhaps one of the questions we answer dishonestly. Yes, yes dishonesty, and why do I say that? Well, let me explain:

Generally the answer to that simple question we adapt it according to our interlocutor and in most cases, we answer without knowing the answer ourselves.  One of the options is to answer also in terms of what we have (a profession, a social status).

To be very honest, even for me (who has the habit of asking and asking myself this question constantly in my work as a coach) it is not easy to answer. And do you know why? Simply because the answer is very easy: Who am I? I am! It’s as simple as that! I am me!

That “I am” is the sum of a lot of things (and I don’t mean material things). In my opinion, it is the sum of the number of experiences I have lived in this life (and past lives), the way I have assimilated those experiences, and how I apply them in the situations I live in every day.

The answer to that who are you, for me is evolutionary. Today, I am not the same person I was yesterday. When I finish writing (and you finish reading) this article, we will not be the same person. Because something may happen, in a fraction of a second, that makes us understand a lived experience and that allows us to move on to something else, to advance a little more in this search for knowledge of ourselves.

That “I am” in my vision, is a state that we do not live consciously all the time. Either because of our fears, because of the experiences that we have not let go of, or because of fear of the future. The same happens with what “I have”, the things I possess (or that possess me in most cases) are an unconscious materialization of that state of fear and of “not being” in which we are used to living. The way we tell our own story also has a lot of influence on the “I am” because according to the way you tell your story it can be transformed. By the way, I have updated my own story, I invite you to read it on my page: “about me” so you can see how I tell my story today and how it has brought me to the point where I am today.

And well, the “I am” myself and “I have” only what is necessary, is a path that I must admit is not easy to follow. Personally, I have spent more than 30 years in the constant search to understand my “I am” and several years already in the task of “having” only what is strictly necessary and what makes me happy. The strategy that has helped me the most in this journey has been detachment, letting go with love and gratitude of the things and experiences that do not allow me to be myself. Today I am in a process of detachment and minimalism, which, although it is not easy to follow, makes me very happy. I have also learned to accept that I will not be the most minimalist in the world (if you saw the number of books and shoes I have) but that does not prevent me from creating my own standard of minimalism. I’ll tell you more about it in another blog post. For the moment, you can follow me on my social networks if you want to see the path I’m going through, I’m on Instagram, Facebook & YouTube.

Finally, I consider that just to answer that who I am with all sincerity, it is necessary that you do it according to your own standards and the same with the question “what do you have” that it is not the society of consumerism or minimalism that imposes you a standard, but you yourself, starting from your inner self. Well, that’s my own vision, my own standard, and an invitation for you to create yours!