How to discover who you are to unleash your passion
How do you discover who you are so you can unleash your passion?
I first got asked this question when I was 21 years old.
My first interview ever was with the company called New York Life. I was sitting across the table from the man who would become my mentor, Moe Abdou, and Moe asked me a question:
“So who are you?”
My initial reaction was, wow this a tough question for me to answer. What do I even say to this?
And in answering that question, the interview went four hours long.
Nobody had ever really asked me that question before so I never had the opportunity to explore it and start to speak my truth and find out, through the process of asking the question, really who am I?
I remember the feeling, the affinity and the connection I had with Moe as a result of him asking that question, and the outflow of ideas and inspiration and how alive I felt from answering a question like that.
A question for you right now: Who are you?
The reason I am able to share my story, share my message with the world and build a multi-million dollar company doing what I love is because I understand that question.
I’ve been on a search for 17 years or so to find the answer to that in a more real way. And every step of the journey, I’ve found out more and more about myself. Many times I was searching in the wrong places.
Today, first and foremost I know myself to be a spiritual being. I look at my life and all the times that I stopped myself from having what I wanted, and all the times that I knew I wanted to speak a message to the world or I knew that I wanted to make a difference, and I found myself down the path of drugs or alcohol or prostitution or being with women I didn’t truly care about because I didn’t care about myself.
As I’ve answered this question, I’ve gotten closer and closer to my truth and I know myself to be an inspirational and spiritual being who will live for eternity.
That’s my truth. I’ve gone on this spiritual journey for years, searching and searching to find out the truth of why am I here, who am I really? I know myself not to be this body. I know that I control this body. However, for years I knew that intellectually – I understood that from spiritual teachings – but I questioned whether that was really true.
Through my search and my journey I’ve discovered that knowing for myself, that it is true. I know that I could literally go in a straight line forever. I can set my mind towards something and go towards that target whether it’s a million miles away, a billion miles away, I can just flow towards it because I don’t have to stop myself any more.
Now, have I experiences that yet or accomplished that yet? No.
But I know in my knowing that I can set my mind and spirit to something, set my vision to something and just go.
So what could I really create in the world with that knowing?
I know myself to be a spiritual being, an inspired being, somebody who has passion and gifts inside myself. And I have this performer, which is just the true expression of creativity. And I used to ask myself, can I be an actor? Can I be a performer? And I put stops on myself, saying that’s not who I see myself being.
But when I find the truth of knowing I can be anything, I can learn anything, I can be anything – in that moment, I have the reality that I can do anything I want. And I know that at my core.
So who are you? Who are you discovering yourself to be? Are you asking yourself that question and exploring it? Because it starts with a search, and perhaps the search is inwards.
Perhaps this search is coming to that place of knowing – when you know, you know with absolute certainty.
When you know, you know that you can do anything you want, have anything you want. And that is a place of freedom.
I would not have created all the things I have created and made the impact that I’ve made without exploring that question, without knowing who I am with absolute certainty.
So who are you?
One of the things that stopped me from finding the truth was looking towards other people’s lives to find the truth.
I constantly looked at successful people and thought I wanted to be like this person or that person.
I would literally try to take on the identity of that person – how they think, how they behave, how they look, how they act – and all of that just stopped me. I got further and further away from myself.
Today, I don’t have to look outside myself and want to be like somebody else. I can look at a person and admire and appreciate them, and value their own unique expression in the world. I value being around people like that because I can learn from them. But learning from them just means I can learn even more about myself.
I know with absolute certainty now that I’m not trying to be anybody else. I’m just being me.
I’m not trying to do what somebody else does, I’m originating it myself – who I want to show up as in the world, which is just me.
What I want to do in the world is whatever creative expression comes through me. It’s whatever lights me up.
I used to think all the time, I’m only ever going to do one thing, and if I do that one thing I’m going to be happy. No, it’s a lot of things now.
I have a business that I run and I teach coaches and speakers how to build their business and find their life story and message, and that’s one aspect of what I do. I run an internet marketing company which is a totally different aspect of the business. I have a software company I’m launching right now. I have a theatre show. I like to go play golf with my dad and my family. I like to travel around. There’s so many things that I like to do, and I don’t stop myself from doing them anymore.
I used to stop myself and I don’t have to do that anymore because I know who I am, and so those challenges don’t show up for me anymore and I’m not stopping myself and looking out into the world and saying I need to be somebody else. It’s changed everything for me.
If you want to take one step right now to discover who you are, just ask yourself the question. That’s a great start.
Explore. Originate your own answers.
You don’t have to learn it in some book or search around and find the answers from other people. Sure, looking is great, exploring is great…but one of the greatest explorations is your own personal universe.
For me, exploring my own personal universe has been the greatest journey ever – understanding who I am and asking myself that question: who am I?
Then, go find the spiritual technology to help you step into this place of discovering who you are.
We’re all on a spiritual path, so are you searching, are you learning, are you taking input from other spiritual technologies to apply them into your life and have breakthroughs?
That’s a different journey for everybody.
For me, I found my oath, I know the spiritual technology that’s real to me and I’ve been using that for years now and it’s changed everything in my life.
I encourage you to go ask that question, and explore it. Find the processes that will help you break through whatever is stopping you. Become more and more real in understanding who you are, and bring that truth into the world and amazing things will open up for you.
My results have just exploded as a result of knowing who I am. In the last year my business has grown by 80%, which is extraordinary growth. I have a multi-million dollar company.
People say that I spend so much time on spiritual processes and so much of my time doing that, but the reality is, time has expanded for me. My relationship to time is different.
Because I put so much focus on who I am becoming and so my focus on my spiritual growth, my business has exploded.
In the last 6 weeks I worked about 90 minutes a day. Now, I know a lot of entrepreneurs who are working 12,13,14 hours a day, and I do that a lot in my life, but for the last 6 weeks, 90 minutes a day. The other 12, 13 hours a day were spiritual processes that I was going through.
People ask how I do that. Well, my own personal production in the last 30 days as a result of only working 90 minutes a day – just for me, the business I brought in personally for my own company – has been $125,000.
My results have exploded because I understand this: the more I expand, the more my perspective changes, the more I shift my mindset and become more of who I am, my ability and my expansion and my being expand so my reach expands to a new level. I am reaching with my beingness, so my capacity to succeed in the world for myself and for others has expanded to a level I could never have conceived of before because I wasn’t breaking through all the limitations and false data I had that was stopping me from being who I am.
My results are only going to expand more, I’m going to 10x my company in the next 18 months. It’s going to be phenomenal! I know my results are exploding because I know who I am and I am constantly applying spiritual technology in my life that is creating this transformation and shift in the world.
Spend the time focussing on yourself. Spend the time growing and your business will grow.
One of my mentors told me the moment my business starts to grow faster than my spiritual growth I’m in trouble.
So grow spiritually, and your business will ultimately expand. Go for it. Make it a great life. Go on that journey into your own personal universe and discover more about who you are so you can make a bigger impact in the world.
As I look at my journey in the future and who I want to be, I want to be more and more myself.
I want to understand more and more myself.
My future is not trying to get to some future Ted; my future is being more of myself and understanding more of who I am and bringing more of my abilities out that I already have. These abilities are here, I’ve just forgotten them.
I’m on a journey to discover more and more of my ability, more and more of my awareness and to take greater responsibility, not just for me but for the planet, for mankind, for my groups, for people I love, for my family – and that is a beautiful knowing, that I am creating that for all of us.
I’m blessed to be able to be on this journey and know my truth and understand the truth. It’s an incredible gift.