What Defines You?

Hi readers, 

On Sundays I enjoy doing nothing.  The nothing takes many forms-walks, lunch, pedicures.  Recently, I've branched out Sunday "nothing" to include documentary films on iTunes.  In this vein, during the latest quest of nothing I discovered Lizzie Velasquez.  She's 26 and weighs 64 pounds due to a rare congenital disease.  She gave a TED Talk in 2013 about a YouTube video labeling her "The World's Ugliest Girl", which went viral complete with thousands of comments from strangers demanding that she kill herself.  In her TED Talk, she said when she considered how to deal with the video, she asked herself the question:

What Defines You?

It's a difficult query.  I continued my Sunday nothing with the question in the back of my mind.  

I love John Steinbeck.    

I'm good at running. 

I'm bad at ironing.  

I'm planning a trip to Palma de Mallorca. 

I make to-do lists with ridiculous items like "drink coffee", because I love crossing things off. 

I play the keyboard for 10 minutes every morning. 

But at the end of the day, what defines me is not the things I do or the things I like of the things I read.  It's the things I want.  All my actions/books/movements are (or at least should be) linked to helping me reach my goals:

I want to be happy.

I want to make a positive impact on the world. 

These desires are linked to a deeper definition that fleeting actions.  They are the values I use to define success and accomplishment.  If I live with this definition of myself close to my mind, my actions feel more meaningful. 

What Defines You?