German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe famously said “Tell me with whom you consort with and I will tell you who you are. ” While insightful and thought provoking, it’s also perhaps a little too simple for today’s modern world. Given Goethe was born in 1749, it’s reasonable to believe people were the main influence back then.

In modern living however, what informs “who we are” can be a bit more complex. I gave a TED Talk a few years back about leading creatives and have continued my study of the modern creative professional ever since. 

My 2022 adaptation of Goethe’s concept expands to include today’s three most important human tells:

1. Inputs

2. People

3. Time

Show me your inputs – the information, media and entertainment you consume. Then show me the people you spend most of your time with (thank you, Goethe). Next account for how you spend your time each day. When analyzing time, just focus on your free time and downtime – the time you spend outside of work and other necessary responsibilities. It’s best to examine what we do when the choice is 100% ours, lest our work defines us.

Capture every detail, then reflect on it deeply. Look into the mirror and tell me who you see.  If you can objectively and truthfully outline these three realities, you will have an accurate mosaic of who you are – whether you like it or not.

Upon completion of this self-inventory exercise, gather it all into a common document and give yourself some time for contemplation. Ask yourself what’s working and what can be improved. Remember, “garbage in, garbage out.”  (And who cares how many times your grandfather said that to you. Some things are undeniably true.) Then set some simple, actionable goals for what you want this inventory to look like by this time next year.  

As Seneca brilliantly said, roughly around 50 AD: 

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested… So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it.” 

I quit playing video games years ago because it scared me how quickly time passed while playing them. Now I’m so neurotic I try to read audio books… while exercising… while taking notes and cataloging ideas. Good? Bad? Who knows? Watching sports is my time waster these days.

Everyone in the history of humankind has exactly the same number of hours in a day to be great… or to be average. The choice is yours. Everyone gets to decide what we consume, who we spend our time with, and what we do with our time. In this, each of us ultimately decides who we are and what’s possible.

And then we die. Memento Mori, Amor Fati.

RW