Is life about finding yourself or creating yourself?

Question

Similar to the nature vs. nuture question, and how much your ethnicity infringes on who you are.

Answer 1

According to me it's about finding yourself.

Answer 2

I think of finding yourself as being a passive action. You can only find something that's already there. I believe life is about creating yourself.

I can't give an answer on the ethnicity part...I am Caucasian, so obviously I have no idea what it is like to be anything but Caucasian. Just as how I have no idea what it's like to be a male. I can make conjecture from where I stand, but I will probably be wrong.

Answer 3

Both. You discover who you are, you also actively create who you are. You make your own choices based on the gifts and resources that you have been given. Your ethnicity, your physical being, your background, upbringing, socialization, peers, life experience, etc etc all play a part in shaping who you are and what you become. It's still up to you what you do with all that you were born into, all that you have and all that you learn. You are given the clay, it's up to you to shape a life. Nature and nurture and personal responsibility.

Answer 4

To me, it's both. I go through some phases in my life where I must find myself, and other parts of my walk of life, I must create myself. I have no control over the shift from finding to creating and creating to finding. Whatever path I am walking on at that time will ensue the difference between creating and finding. My number 1 goal is to evolve daily. Learn from my mistakes. Finding and creating can go hand in hand at times. My ethnicity does not infringe much on who I am or my environment. I am a white male living in the United States. I am proud of who I am, but that pride is not derived from my US citizenship and the color of my skin.I am controlled by my spirit and my consciousness ultimately helps me to create and to search.

Answer 5

Ethinicity has nothing to do with it. People make masks which cover up their true selves, creating the illusion of a changed persona. However, the truth lies much deeper in the mind of a person and it is a matter of knowing yourself and not what others or you wish your self to be.

Answer 6

Both. Finding yourself is about figuring out who you are. What do you stand for? What are your morals and values? Where do you draw the line on things and what will you fight for? What makes you happy and how can you use that to get ahead in life? Creating yourself is how you apply that knowledge. They are equal and useless independent from one another. The important thing is to get them in the right order.

Answer 7

I don't believe that people "find" or "create" themselves. You grow into yourself.

I was diagnosed with cancer at age 24, I certainly didn't suddenly find a person that was strong enough to go through this (I'm 25 now and in a second relapse), nor did I create that person. My experience made me grow into a stronger, wiser and more appreciative person. You don't just find or create those things. They only appear when life leads you down that road and you choose to keep walking it.

Answer 8

creating yourself with a dash of finding yourself.

first off you have to FIND what you want to do, then create it.

nature vs nurture: both, but nurture effects you more.

ethnicity; the only reason this stops people iis because of steryotypes and racism.

Answer 9

You are what you think you are. You are what you make yourself. With questions like that, you are only going to walk around with a head full of others' nonsense and wives' tales.

Answer 10

it took me 30 yrs to find myself..and i like the person i am...spending time on your own enables you to find yourself..and being independant gives you more cnfidence..creating yourself is impossible..your already created..but you can create things after finding out what your good at..

Answer 11

Fantastic question

I think they are two aspects of the same question. In other words, a little of both.