Creating Ourselves Rather Than Discovering Ourselves

In the absence of knowing who we are, self-definition or self-creation will always be attempted to some degree.  After having spent a good portion of our lives attempting to create ourselves, can we now see that it cannot be done.  It will always lead to failure and disappointment.  We cannot create ourselves because we have already been created.  However, the attempt to do so is the basis of much commercial activity and spawns commercial enterprises costing billions of dollars.  Much more money is spent  on creating ourselves than on discovering ourselves.

We attempt to create ourselves according to the standards given to us by whomever we learn to respect or on whom we have been taught to depend.  In other words, what is good and worthwhile to us will be determined most immediately by our family and peers and then by our culture generally.  We learn that if we are a certain way we will be “somebody”.