As we sit in our offices, on our couches, in our cars, at our desks, we define ourselves in different ways. These are often simple masks we wear to fit what it is others expect of us, or that we must project based on the situation. All totally understandable, but what happens when you begin to lose who you are to these masks? When you forget to take one mask off before donning another, and they blend to a point where you can’t get out from under either?

These are scary questions, as I often feel this way. I have a job that expects me to work at home after I’ve worked on my site all day. Where, in order to accomplish all that needs to be done, I have to take the mask with me and answer emails, or texts, and grade papers, create curriculum, etc. Yet, the person I am behind the doors of my home is not the same person I am away from them. This forces me to continue to be the person others expect of me from a certain situation, that I am no longer in, and yet I can’t escape.

I have recently started working on my goals and plans for 2020. One of the top 5 for the year was to define who I am, what my style is, and how I want others to see me. To let who I want to be shine, and not let others, and the masks expected be the definers. Now, I am pondering how to do that. To not be judged, ridiculed, or question myself when others start questioning me.

Am I the redneck witch? The proper teacher? The crazy writer? The new age spiritualist? The answer to all of them is yes, but what does that look like? How do I show myself, and then the world, that yes I am all of those things at once, and this is what it looks like? I don’t yet, but that is the goal for 2020. Stick with me and we shall see how it goes… the ups and the downs.

How are you? How do you define yourself? Do you find that you are losing one identity because of another? How do you shine your light through and let others know the “real” you? Drop me a line so we can chat.

Photo by Llanydd Lloyd on Unsplash