It is a cold, snowy, winter morning as I sit here in my warmly lit, cozy bedroom and think about life, while 90% of others throughout the country are sound asleep. I just finished rereading a blog post that contains profound personal meaning from a distant relative of mine who communicated a lot of what means the most to him in life. Shortly after, I came across an extremely inspirational photograph on my computer that touched my soul and filled me up with that feeling of timeless fulfillment & bright youthful energy. Much like what a powerful intimate connection can feel like with another person you love. From there, I asked myself the question… “What do I want to be?” I’d like to share just that with you here.

What I Want To Be

When I let the deep feelings within me flow into words that capture these feelings, here is what came out…

All of these components of what I want to be within myself are powerfully moving to me, individually. However, the synergy of combining them within myself and envisioning the actualization & expression of them, at full force, creates an exponential surge of positive emotion for me, that causes a physical outburst from me. This tells me that something is really right here.

Presently, I fundamentally lack compared to the full force state of being and expression of these traits. I must seriously commit to building myself completely into this person, who currently only shows up completely every so often. I believe, if I do, then it will be to a point where other people can feel the electric levels of positive energy jumping off of me, due to how I naturally carry myself. Not only would this state of being be extremely inspiring for me internally, but I would consistently become a source of inspiration to others, which is a great thing too.

The Nature of This Question

On the surface of this question, “What do I want to be?”, many people would interpret it in a way that I do not mean. I am not directly talking about profession, career, skills, status, or traditional achievements. Instead, I am talking about what I want to be from my personal internal human identity.

Overall, I’ve always found it pretty meaningless to care much about what a person does for a career in life. You know, the whole “What do you do?” question that everyone obsessively asks, which is a complete can of worms for people to ask of me. I’ve always found it a much more valuable question to ask and answer in life of “Who are you?”, as in internally what type of person are you, what do you stand for, and what do you naturally gravitate to. However, now, I am seeing it as a more powerful question to ask “What are you?” from the context of my original question “What do you want to be?”. This question can cut to the essence of the person’s true, natural, higher self, which is what we would all like to connect with, deep down, anyway.

Notice how my answers are oddly and strategically phrased in that I, within myself, want to be “a powerful foundation of courage”, etc… “What do you want to be?” is all about defining your internal self as an entity onto itself.

Not For Consumption by Others

The true answers for this specific question are not inherently meant for others. It is only about your true inner self. This doesn’t mean that living out these answers within yourself and within your life won’t affect others. It likely will have amazing positive effects on other people that you care about and have never even met yet. However, the place where the true answers reside are at the very core of your personal identity…not in a mindset where you are considering the outside world, including other people. Let the true answers flow for you alone and from you alone, in a state of inner abundance.

Build a World Class Entity within Yourself

Now, you’d be hard pressed to find another person who has put more effort into visualizing, strategizing, and crafting concrete plans for building a total dream life empire of goodness in the external world of life, than I personally have. If it is good, then I want all of it in my life, no doubt.

However, what is beyond the external world is the internal world within us. That is also where our happiness resides, since happiness is a state of mind. Instead of only developing our internal selves in a way that allows us to do great things in the external world, so that then value can come back to us that can hopefully make us happy to the point of fulfillment… We should develop our internal selves as an entity onto its own in a way that is naturally fulfilling, because of what we are within, without the need for any special external circumstances. I believe that this is the most solid path to consistently waking up with extreme happiness.

So, within yourself, truly become what you want to be. Let go of your ego… Let go of subconscious influence from others… Let go of all the external bullshit, connect with the core of who you are, and truly ask yourself “What do I want to be, within myself, in my life?”. What is the most natural and full expression of what you want to personally be to yourself in your life? If you need to help moving your surface level intellectual mind out of the way, then begin by opening up and emotionally feeling familiar memories of your childhood, or a magic moment with a lover, or an experience with a loved one who has passed on. Make it vivid and feel it very deeply. Then tap into your core self and seek what you want to be within, in your life.

Architect the most beautiful creation within that naturally fulfills you. Develop an entire positively reinforcing world inside that is based on what you truly want to be to yourself in life. View your internal being as a concrete thing onto itself. Not just a set of skills, like confidence, empathy, wisdom, etc, that can be executed out in your life to produce a return of value to you personally & emotionally. Rather, the internal world can contain both the cause & effect of your desires, if built to do so.

Beyond the External Model

Imagine for a minute that you’ve achieved everything you’ve ever wanted in the external world of life. Literally everything. Doing that intensely & vividly may leave you in a state of excitement, where your mind can’t get beyond that feeling right now. Having philosophized, visualized, and strategized about achieving every external thing I’ve ever wanted, countless times throughout my life, including out of this world wealth, power, fame, friendships, intimate relationships, humanitarian contributions, etc, I know that the initial blind excitement and state of happiness can easily & predictably fade with time. It has for me, just by intimately experiencing these aspects of life within my mind over and over again.

At the end of the day, for one’s happiness, is there something beyond achieving literally everything you’ve ever wanted in your external life? Won’t achieving that alone maximize your happiness and be perpetually worth it to stay on that path of mindset?

There is another dimension. You see, happiness is great no matter where it comes from, including the external world, as long as you aren’t harming others. However, the model for happiness where the outside world is feeding it into the state of your mind is only one side of the coin. The other side, which few of us truly develop in our lives, consists of the identity, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and overall internal mindset that feeds out happiness from within.

Most of us have experienced bursts of happiness throughout life at times through our own minds. However, with most of us, me included, it has been short-lived and inconsistent. Our ongoing pursuit of happiness has likely been largely based on something external. Of course, we don’t hold precise control over the external world, even parts of it within our own personal lives, to the degree necessary to adapt to whatever our exact state of mind is in the moment, in order to yield the result of happiness. This is a big part of what makes perpetual states of happiness so elusive to us, when pursuing it through the external model.

I’ve always intellectually understood this internal vs. external happiness model before, however, with this personal identity breakthrough this morning, the gravity of it has fully hit me and has now become a true paradigm shift for my thinking & belief going forward on the subject of happiness. I must develop these internal assets for their own good.

Synergy of the Internal & External Worlds

As I said, I believe that happiness is good no matter what its source is, as long as you aren’t hurting anyone. So, even if developing this rich internal source of happiness is the best single overall approach, there is no reason to deny happiness from external sources. Happiness from internal & external sources can be just as good in any given moment of life. A dollar is a dollar. In fact, in the real world, even if we pursue happiness purely from within, then we won’t likely experience near the amount of happiness that we would if we pursued the synergistic integration of our internal & external worlds.

Think about it… Don’t you find human connection & contribution to others to be some of the most fulfilling things to experience in life? I do. And how exponentially amazing would it be to engage in these external experiences with a state of mind that is already rich with intense internal happiness? We’ve all experienced this at times that we might call “magic moments” throughout life. How would you like those magic moments to become the quality of your everyday life? Enough said.

Stepping Up to Implement This Now

Taking the necessary time to find the most true answers to this deep question “What do I want to be?” is very much worth it, because then you can direct your personal development and the living of your life in the best direction and produce more optimal results. Your current direction or path in life may or may not be close to being in alignment with the answers you know, deep down, are right. For me, after this breakthrough today, I feel as though I have been heading in the right overall direction, but that the adjustment to and implementation of this one key insight can accelerate my overall progress in life by a factor of one or two decades of effort saved. I must pursue being this within myself, wholeheartedly, if I want it to really payoff.

So, in reality, how does one truly become within what they know is personally right to be for themselves? Well, one answer is to simply follow your heart. This may sound like an ineffective strategy to some, and it used to to me, but think about it… You already successfully achieved this, if you got in touch with your deeper self, followed this introspective exercise, and felt the nature of the answers within you. That right there is the end result in itself! Executing the diligence to wholeheartedly follow your heart in this manner by consistently experiencing and strengthening these feelings is a solid answer that has great predictability over time for you. Now, I do believe that there exists more technical strategies for becoming what you know is right for yourself. This likely involves advanced psychological processes and hacks. Open Achievement could be an excellent platform for discovering & creating that side of strategy. The bottom-line is that you know this fulfillment is worth whatever effort is needed to build your internal self in this manner. The great thing about it is that you get to experience new levels of personal rewards along the entire path of growth here and at some point sooner than later, a natural upward spiral will likely take effect within you.

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So what do you want to be in your life? We all want to feel amazing emotions that make us happy. That is the quality of the experience of our life. Be, within yourself, what will make you happy and then live it to your fullest, unapologetically. You have one opportunity to do so with your humanity. It is never too late. Be happy.

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What do you want to be?