Are you retired?

Yes.

What did you retire from?

Farming.

My dad hadn’t farmed for decades, yet that was his response. He had held a lot of interesting jobs: dispatching a fleet of trucks, guiding motorists and officials for statewide transportation, excavating, managing a farming co-op, brokering commodities, and much more. Granted, farming certainly occupied more of his time than any other occupation throughout his life, but it wasn’t the last thing he did. It’s what he identified with the most.

Some things stick to our identity. It becomes such an important part of who we are that we can’t tell if we were always that way and it seeped out or if we surrounded ourselves with it so much that it seeped in.

But we know it’s important. We know it’s who we are.

What do you want to be known for more than anything? What is your identity? I’m not talking about work, like in my dad’s case. If my dad was asked to describe his identity, I don’t think the first thing he’d say is “farmer.” Identity goes much deeper and reaches much farther.

But it’s important to know who you are, what you’ve allowed and relied on to form your identity. Sometimes the things we believe about ourselves aren’t as accurate as we want to think. We need to evaluate with authenticity and move forward with intention.

So, who are you?