Who You Are and What You Do

I stumbled upon the best advice post I’ve read in a long time. (And that’s saying a lot because you know that I’m a Carolyn Hax superfan.) The advice came from Seun Adebiyi, an Olympian and cancer survivor, who kicked off his list with this nugget:

“Never confuse who you are with what you do.”

He explains the danger of tying self-worth to accomplishments. Think about where you are drawing your self-esteem. And then ask yourself if it’s who you are (a good listener) or what you do (get straight As). So simple. So smart.

And this: “Fortify your village, then build a moat.” We sort of forget to mention that part when we talk about gathering people around you. Of course people need other people to get through life, but we also need to know how to shut out people from time to time and build those ever-important boundaries. We teach kids how to make friends (sort of), but I think we also need to teach them how to build that moat if there are toxic people around them.

What do you think of his thoughts?