Adolescent, Teenage, Mid Life Does the Self Discovery Journey End

Adolescent, Teenage, Mid life Does the Self Discovery Journey End

Sorry kids I do not think it ever ends. Self discovery is an ongoing life process. When I was a teenager I remember beginning to travel without parental supervision. What would happen on these journeys was me. I would express different parts of my personality. I experiment with who I was what I wanted to promote about myself.

My prior childhood experience was one of conformity. I conformed to my parents wishes and who they thought I was. My ventures out into the world allowed me to express me without the confines of being told who I was. Did I make mistakes? Yes. Did I say oh this is really fun and then find out later why dressing that way was not a good idea? Oh yeah. Did I experiment and make changes that stayed with me, because I found a new comfort zone that fitted me better? Yes

All of this is growth. It is learning who we are and who we want to be. Sometimes these changes are quiet or subtle. Maybe instead of being the quiet child we experiment with being more open and chatting. Within our selves perhaps rebelling and going with the child becoming the adult all of this a motion in self-growth.

As I moved through my 30’s and into my 40’s I again found myself in this position. Both by choice and by circumstance I had to express that aggressively outgoing side of my personality. What I found was expressing myself that way was powerful I found that I liked it, but in the end of nearly a decade of expressing myself that way I was exhausted mentally and physically. I was not being true to myself being that strong kill or be killed person.

I had to back up and learn to be me again. I had a series of life changing situations happen and I again had to adjust back to my true self. A learning experience and a decade of self discovery brought me to talents and loves I never knew I had the strength for. Was this period of my life a total loss? I would say not. The time I was in that situation was catastrophic for me. I thought if I did not succeed in who I wanted to be then that my life was a failure. I was wrong.

Life is never a failure. We may fail in situations and sometimes circumstance plays into the hand. Life is a journey and all the discoveries about us, no matter how hard those experiences are worth life. If we experience a setback or a crisis, we must get up and move forward, thankful for the lesson.