“Tell me a little bit about yourself?”
 
“What do you do for a living?”
 
“What do you believe in?”
 
“What do you do for fun?”
 
How you define yourself, not only to others around you in the world, but especially to yourself, comes to be the projected definition of your life.
 
Now certainly, this seems like a very obvious statement. But, if you move this towards a little bit deeper level, and really think this through, “How do you define yourself?” Truly!  And, “How do you define yourself to others?” Truly!
 
I had to do this little session in the Midwest last week. In the AM of one of the days that I was there, I decided to pop into a Panera and have one of their Avo and Egg White Breakfast Sandwiches and a cup of their tasty Hazelnut Coffee for breakfast. I grabbed my stuff and went and sat down at a table.
 
I noticed there was an older guy working on his computer, at the booth behind me, and a middle-aged lady sitting a table, also behind me. No biggy. But, you always need to be aware of your surroundings.
 
I sat down and began to eat my breakfast sandwich. I hear the lady begin to talk. I initially assumed she was on her phone, as I could not see her—as she was behind me. She went into what sounded like a discourse. She began to go on and on and on about how she had been sexually attacked. Then, she went deeper into the subject. It was by her husband, which had caused her to have extensive anxiety.
 
The conversation, or whatever it was, was very intense. She gave this entire definition of her life and what brought her to the point where she found herself.
 
Maybe not convo, I thought? Maybe she was writing a book or preparing a lecture, as there did not seem to be a response or a back and forth in any manner.  
 
What she spoke, she said in a very articulate manner.
 
Finally, it was over, and there, again, was the silence you expect in such an establishment.  
 
I finished up my breakfast. Was enjoying my cup of coffee. And, was doing some doomscrolling on my phone.
 
Then, she went into it again. Another conversation??? This time, she began to detail how she had been sexually assaulted which caused her to leave her relationship. But, as she had developed a certain sense and stye of living, her former mate had, “The responsibility,” as she put it, to keep her living at that level. So, she was getting alimony—getting money from him and she deserved it!
 
…This made think to my former brother-in-law who is getting palimony from his ex, my sister-in-law. What a loser! Be a man!
 
But, that’s a side note, never mind…
 
Again, she went on and on and on. Speaking of sexual abuse, anxiety, all the pain, psychological and otherwise was in, getting money for free, and how she deserved it. But, all her friends had taken the side of her ex-husband and would not speak to her, so she was all alone.
 
The definition of her life.  She really had it all down pat.
 
Finally, I couldn’t take anymore. I got up and looked to my rear. The older guy had already taken off and moved to a different table in the distance to get whatever work done that he needed completed on his laptop. I look, the lady had not been on her phone or her tape recorder or her anything as I had thought. She was just speaking to herself. And, I guess anyone who would listen. Wow!
 
Me, I put my plate on the used plate area. Grabbed another cup of the joe for the road. And, I was out-a-there.
 
Now, this is a very extreme sense of a person possessing a highly defined definition of themselves and their life and their… And, wanting to get it out there to the world. …As negative as all of that was… But, we all hold a definition of our life.

I believe what comes to be the question of this definition, however, is how true is this characterization? How honest are you with yourself? And, how much do you project that definition to the world? How much do you want others to truly know about you?
 
I mean, on the very minuit level, think of all the people who wear tee-shirts featuring a band that they like or a jersey from the sports team they follow. That is a definition of who they are. It spreads out from there. What you wear is assuredly a definition of who you are and how you see yourself. But, more importantly, what you say and particularly what you do comes to be the ideal projection of who you think you are.
 
So truly, who are you? And, how much time have you spent truly defining who and what you actually are? Mostly, is who you think you are, truly who and what you actually are? Or, are you lying to yourself and the world around you?

Perhaps, even equally important, how do you project your self-definition out to the world? Is how you view yourself—is how you define yourself—is how you project yourself based in a mind frame of positivity or is it based in the ideology of negativity? Do you define yourself by the positive events in your life or the negative events that you have undergone? Knowing, that by embracing the positive you are viewed by others in one way, and that ways sets the course for your new and next set of life adventures, verse using negativity as a self-definition.

The world begins with you. Your world begins with you. How you define yourself, how you project yourself, will forever lay the foundations for your next set of life experiences.