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Defining Me

By Marsha Maung

April 5th , 2007

Am I an over-ambitious person with no conscious? Or am I a fun-loving and adventurous person who is up for challenge from the moment I am awake till the moment I nod off? Am I mother who has a compassionate side to me that is deserving of awards, recognition and accolades? Or am I all of the above. In order to define me, I need to think about every single aspect and corners of my being and I have set out to do so in this article.

My kids have asked me before, “Mom, have you stopped growing already?” and I answered them, “I will never stop growing. As long as I am alive, I will continue to grow. Both physically and mentally, we grow consistently until the point we stop breathing”. But to grow, mature and evolve properly, we need to understand one thing. We need review.

Companies have goals and plans. The management have meetings and reviews for a very good reason….to see if things are heading in the right direction and if they need to make changes to the original plans. The same goes for everyone, every life in this planet. We need to review our lives and our goals, plans, direction in life, hence, we need to review what we are and where we’re heading consistently over the course of our existence.

What am I as a person?
As a person, I’ve always been known as a person who is fun-loving and always on the go. I was NO top scorer in school and did not see the point in being one; but I never disappointed my parents with my academic results. In fact, despite my mediocre results in school, at one point in time, I was thought of as one of the brighter and more intelligent ones among our relatives. It’s funny but I never thought I was smart or intelligent; merely daring and over-inquisitive. I embrace life completely and even though others think that they are looking face on with a brick wall, I find ways to break the barrier.

Over time, with added-on responsibilities, stress level rose and the daringness that defined me early on in my life diminished. The fun-loving personality was slowly stripped away, one by one, layer by layer. What I have left in me right now is an over-anxious person who needs to review her view of life and how to deal with the rising level of stress. The stress of being a person and being responsible for others has reduced me to a person who is incapable of enjoying life.

That’s what I have reviewed and thankfully, I have come around again and have found, once again, it’s better to be happy with what I have than to worry about what I cannot have in the future.

What am I as a mother?
To say that motherhood changed my life and the way I look at life is an understatement. While being a parent reduced my wild tendencies to fly off the hook impulsively, it has turned me into a self-sacrificing creature of sorts who would do anything for her kids – even if it’s at her own expense. If you are a parent, you are probably nodding in agreement. If you are not, you WILL understand in the future.

In the early days of being a mother, I turned into an over-protective tigress who snarled and growled at potential danger, regardless of situation. I neglected myself because I saw my kids as being more important. As I evolve and change, I discovered that in order to take care of my kids properly, I need to take care of myself first! A person who is incapable of fixing herself up is not in the position to fix others.

What am I as a freelance writer and business owner?
I have to say that after I quit my job as an online marketing manager for a dotcom, I was clueless as to what lies ahead of my as a freelance writer. My only thought was to writer as many articles as possible to make as much money as possible and to give myself and my website as much exposure as possible. I would write dirt cheap articles regardless of topic. Believe me, I spent a lot of time worrying.

Many years later, I started establishing myself as a good freelance writer and an ethical business owner who knows her boundaries. As a result, I have become more dedicated to my clients’ success. The focus now is not to write as many junk articles as possible and betray my own beliefs and principles but to write in a way that would enhance the integrity of my clients and promote their business in a way that would make success possible.

The only certainty in life is change
People are ever-changing. One situation, even though deemed small and insignificant as an singular event, can cause a spiral effect on other aspects of your life and others. Learning how to expect and deal with these changes is important. As we absorb the an increasing number of roles in our lives, we need to know how to familiarize ourselves to new situations in order to grow at the appropriate rate. Learning, sadly, is not an easy thing to do because human beings are designed to love the comfort of certainty, of being in our comfort zone.

Hence, reviewing ourselves time and time again is essential to our health and mind. The roles I play as a mother and freelance writer is insignificant compared to the role I play as myself. There cannot be one constant picture of me because the list of my strengths and weaknesses can change as I grow and each of these strengths and weaknesses are merely snapshots of me, what I am as a person.

The realization of the need to revise the definition of ‘me’ will help you find the true manifestation of your true self, your true potential. All your passion, your drive, your love, your commitments, your responsibilities and the choices that you have made in this lifetime will be underscored and be placed under your own microscopic scrutiny. Through this review and self-reflection process, you will finally realize that you are a work in progress. You are never done until you stop breathing. There is no real ‘me’ and as with ‘you’ because you and me will continue to change over the course of living. The point of review is not to criticize what we’ve done wrong in the past but is to look at the overview of what we are and improve on the things that we have done wrong.

Since I am a ‘work in progress’, there is no real definition of who I am.

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Credit: The photo above can be downloaded here.

Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance writer and full-time mother who has been providing kick-ass articles and web content to her clients for nine years and counting. She provides top-notch, personally written, original articles to her clients for their blogs and websites and she also provides search-engine optimized articles too. With her experience in online marketing and freelance writing, she is now known as one of the most professional and articulate freelance writers of this new modern Internet era. For more information on Marsha, visit her website at http://www.marshamaung.com. For dirty details on being a mother-cum-writer, visit her blog instead at http://www.marshamaung.blogspot.com. She is also a contributing writer for http://www.contentmagician.com