Abstract :The quest for discovering our best selves motivates each one of us as we strive to live with purpose and meaning. Although we recognize our desire to constantly improve, we do not always understand how to best accomplish that noble objective. Often the challenge is not in knowing what we ought to do, but in understanding how to develop the self-discipline and moral courage to put our lives in order. As we mature, we recognize that the patterns we develop and the barriers that we impose on ourselves are often the biggest challenges to overcome.
The purpose of this paper is to address the quest to motivate ourselves most effectively as we struggle in understanding our identity and finding our voice. The paper begins by identifying the often-subconscious nature of our identities and the process we use to equate our actions with our beliefs about ourselves. We then address the nature of our individual voices as that concept has been described by Stephen R. Covey. Following that introduction, we present seven insights about the identity as it relates to motivating ourselves in the pursuit of personal excellence. The paper concludes with a summary of five benefits that derive from becoming the person we have the potential to being and words of encouragement to those who struggle with achieving that goal.