Yesterday evening, a conversation that suggested I had come from a privileged background prompted me to recall an experiment I conducted several years ago…

Some time ago, just out of curiosity, I asked a group of students with whom I was working to see if they could correctly guess a number of things about me:

1. Where I grew up?
2. Whether I came from money?
3. Whether I am an introvert or extrovert (to recharge my internal batteries and/or seek consolation and guidance, whether I prefer my own company or the company of many)?
4. Whether my family were all/mostly high achievers?

For number one, most correctly guessed Australia, but several thought me to be British, and a small number thought I grew up in the States but spent my adult life in Britain.

For number two, without exception they all agreed I had come from a family who was abundant financially – the complete antithesis is true.

For number three, all but one thought me to be an extrovert, with most citing my public career as justification for their assessment – actually, I am a strong introvert.

For number four, they were split between yes and no – by this stage, however, thinking this to be a trick question.  When prompted further, most agreed I had come from a family of high achievers – again, the opposite is true.  I had to go back to my great-grandparent’s grandparents to find anyone in my family who I would consider a high-achiever.

What is interesting, is that their answers were based essentially on the ‘me’ I have designed.  The ‘me’ I have become… the ‘me’ I decided to become – and am still becoming.

We are each essentially our own block of clay from which we can mould whoever and whatever we choose.

I decided decades ago I wanted to be someone who wasn’t defined by my past.

I am constantly working on myself, on how I show up in the world, on the person I am at my core…

…and when it comes down to what really matters – who you were, where you grew up, whether you had money…  That is all irrelevant to who you are today unless you wish it to be so.

What matters is NOW – how you show up NOW – what you do NOW.

I may have come from a poor, abusive, and underachieving family – but I have chosen to create a wonderful life for myself of abundance in all areas – and not because I didn’t want what they had – or because I did want what someone else had…

I chose to build a wonderfully abundant life full of the things that I want for me – I am my own clay, my own masterpiece – and every single day, I fine-tune my sculpture… it is never done.

Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.  ~ Wayne Dyer

So, the question is, what do you want your sculpture to look like, sound like, be like..?

The only one standing in your way from that happening – is you.

“Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows.”  ~ Michael Landon