Assuming your own person-hood
and standing firm, may prove to be the most important thing that you can do in
your lifetime.
Many people try to be like others in attempting to assume their
identities; some go even further and become other people, at least in their own
minds. Their own person-hood is lost in the process. For example, a teenage
girl may imitate a female singer whose music she loves, instead of just being
herself. A young man may try to become a famous sports figure from the past or
present.
The question of how to assume
your own person-hood becomes one of personal identity.
What is personal identity?
The freedictionary.com suggests
that identity is “the set of behavioral or personal
characteristics by which an individual is recognizable by a member or a group”.
When a person attempts to be
the same as someone else or to become someone else, his or her own identity or
person-hood may be lost or become distorted. In the extreme, this signifies the loss
of identity and reality, or mental illness like schizophrenia. Family members
and friends may no longer be able to identify with them.
In reality, personhood or identity is “the distinct personality of an
individual” or “individuality”. It is also a “persisting entity” rather than
something that comes and goes.
How to assume your own
person-hood means being who you are, at all times. Focusing on your own strengths
and minimizing your weaknesses allows the strong aspects of your own
person-hood to be manifest.
Every person has a distinct personality that makes
him or her, a unique individual. Personality traits do not necessarily
disappear when someone tries to assume the identity of another person, even
though he or she may attempt to hide them.
Confusion may result when a
person tries to assume someone else’s person-hood. It is akin to role-playing,
as opposed to living the reality of life. Role-playing can be fun unless the
person playing the role becomes fixated on being someone other than him or
herself.
Not assuming someone else’s
identity allows you the opportunity to become your own person. Your own
personality traits will be manifest instead of pseudo-personality traits that
are not yours. Your collective personality traits make you a complete whole and the person who you are.
Do not waste your time and
energy on being someone other than your own person. Focus on being yourself
with all of your own individual characteristics instead of magnifying a
pseudo-personality that you might try to assume.
Shakespeare wrote these words, “This above all: to
thine own self be true.” Shakespeare, by assuming his
own person-hood, became the person we know him to be today.
You can do that also and
blossom in your own person-hood. Remember that you are your own person and can
take pride in that reality.
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