“What do you want to be?” is a weird question. You’ll be lots of things. Ask “who do you want to be?”
REFLECTION
WHAT THIS MEANS
Asking what somebody will be compresses a whole person into one job title, and the answer is expected to last decades. You will be several things, in sequence and at the same time. The steadier question is about character: reliable, generous, honest when it costs something, calm when everything is going wrong.
Answer the second version for yourself in three words and keep them somewhere you will see them. When a decision comes up this week, hold it against those words instead of against a career.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
What sort of person are you becoming lately?
MORE IN MEANING & PERSPECTIVE
- A thousand selfies won’t tell you what you were thinking. Write a few lines about this year somewhere.
- Some of where you are is effort and some is luck. Admitting the luck makes you kinder, not weaker.
- Old letters are full of grocery prices and weather reports. The ordinary stuff is what people end up treasuring.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.