Just as each snowflake has its own shape that is unique and different from every other snowflake, each person is uniquely different from every other person. Sometimes people try to identify themselves by the clothes they wear, their job or their home and car. These are external factors are not the true substance of your identity. Your identity is much deeper inside of you than your outward appearance. Your identity is who you were born into this world to be.

Finding your identity begins with discovering the “Younger You.”

When he was only seven years old, Albert Einstein asked himself, “How can I ride my bicycle along a beam of light?” He chased this curiosity for the rest of his life. Your curiosity stems from something that has always fascinated you since you were a young child. In order to find your true identity, you must begin communicating with your “Younger You” that was curious about whatever sparked your curiosity at a young age.

Take a minute or two to think about what filled you with awe, wonder and curiosity when you were young. What aspects of the world fascinated you and made you curious to find out more? You must realize that this part of you is still alive even though you may not have interacted with that part of yourself in a very long time. By simply asking yourself the question, “What made me curious as a child,” you have opened up the lines of communication with your “Younger You” again.

Growing up, you are taught to fall in line, wait for the bell to ring, get to work at a certain time, go when the light says green, and stop when it is red. You are reacting to the world around you. Even though we need rules to follow (I’m NOT saying go run red lights), the day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year of falling in line and not being enthusiastic has left you feeling blah or at least a little bit more refined. The Younger You is the part of you that screams like a little kid when you do something fun. If you have not let out a long scream of excitement in a while, you need to go for it sometime. Remember how good it felt to randomly jump up and down for no reason other than it felt good? That is the excitement, wonder and fascination that you need to rediscover as you reconnect with your “Younger You.”

I Cannot Act That Way as an Adult

You might be thinking, “I couldn’t do that…what would others think?” If so, I encourage you to stop living your life by what others might think. I was walking out of church the other day in front of a mother and her young daughter. I had stepped aside to avoid a puddle when I looked back at the mother and daughter just as the daughter said to her mother, “I want to jump in the puddle.” She did and you know what, so did I. It felt great! I was wearing nice dress shoes but they were already wet so what was a little more water going to do. My “Younger You” was elated.

You see, I did that for my younger me, little Marky. I gave my “Younger You” a fun nickname because I just thought it was a fun name — his name is Jimbo. Jimbo and I are having fun. Right now, several of you are probably thinking this is strange and that is okay. There is a part of you that you have been ignoring for a long time. If you think what I have just told you is strange, I encourage you to challenge me on this one and you will see a lighter side of yourself. In the 1900s, Dr. Carl Jung spoke of the different aspects of self that we all possess. I believe that the “Younger You” is just one of those aspects that many of us have lost touch with as we began to fall in line as adults.

I promise you that when you connect to this deeper part of “you,” you will see transformations in your life that you can only dream of right now. I know this process may seem very foreign to most of you right now but know that it works. I am not a trained psychologist and I am just sharing what I have seen work in my life and the lives of my clients. Reconnecting with the “Younger You” does not require hypnosis or going into a deep painful moment. Rather it is actually a joy-filled moment that my clients experience and it forever changes them. They begin to see the different sides of themselves that they were not able to see before their transformation.

To make this transformation, we will be going through a process of reconnecting to your younger self. I will show you the different sides of your “Younger You” so that you can see when he or she is showing up. You will have a chance to re-engage with a nickname from your childhood or come up with a fun new nickname that identifies the awe, wonder and curiosity that you once felt as a child.

Want a deeper life of fulfillment? Get started with a 30 minute call.

I’m Mark Jamnik, and I encourage you to enjoy life daily.

Image credit: Scooter Lowrimore