What words do you use to define yourself? Have you ever given it much thought? Do you unthinkingly accept and buy into the assessments and expectation other people have pinned on you? What we believe about ourselves affects our actions and our actions impact the direction and quality of our lives. Let me give you an example.

As a country, we are knee deep in a recession. The government’s solution is to get us to open up our pocket books and spend more money. So they are proposing to give us money to spend it on services and things, but primarily on things. They reason that we are a nation of consumers for and about consuming, and that ramping up our spending will solve our economic woes.

I’m not an economist and this blog post is not about solving the nation’s financial crisis. I am, however, asking you so stick with me on this analogy as we look more closely at how accepting generalizations about ourselves can be a waste of our potential and even harmful.

“We Americans are so used to being referred to as ‘consumers’ that we comfortably fall into that role and do so conspicuously,” wrote reader Tom Krohn in his recent email to columnist Michelle Singletary of The Fresno Bee. His point was that it’s not just our spending habits that need to change but how we define ourselves as a nation that needs adjusting. We have gotten so used to thinking of ourselves as consumers, that we nod in mass agreement when the government says what we need to solve this economic crisis is more consuming.

As Singletary points out in her newspaper column, “According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, consume means to do away with completely; destroy; to spend wastefully; squander.” Oops! What Krohn is saying is that maybe we need to think outside the box about our values and our focus in order to open up greater possibilities to re-energizing and re-developing our economy.

And that is my point to you. The definition of who you are will overtly and even covertly direct your behavior. So do you live by who you truly are, or are you held captive by someone else’s definition of you? Are you boxed in or do you have room to grow and flourish? Have you ever even given it much thought? Introspection and self-awareness are good things, and there is no better time than the freshness of the new year to turn the looking glass on yourself.

So take a moment to write down a minimum of ten words that you would use to describe who you are. Re-read and assess how truthful you were about yourself. Do you like what you read? Does anything need to be enhanced, changed or just completely deleted? If you are perfectly satisfied, then I ask you to be deeply honest with yourself. Humans are like sharks, if we don’t keep moving and growing, we die. I am not suggesting that you be highly critical and smash your self-esteem. I am just asking you to remain open and aware to what new personal growth and opportunities may lie ahead

My February newsletter will complete this topic (for now) on rethinking, renewing and refreshing.  Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter if you haven’t already done so.  Happy New Year!

(Note: Michelle Singletary’s column, We’re Defined by the Way We Shop, appeared in the January 4, 2009 issue of The Fresno Bee newspaper.)