What's your Quiddity?
quid|dity
[ˈkwɪdɪti]
NOUN
1. philosophy
the inherent nature or essence of someone or something.
synonyms: quintessence · soul · spirit · ethos · nature · life · lifeblood · core · heart · centre · crux · nub · nucleus · kernel · marrow · meat · pith · gist · substance · principle
2. a distinctive feature; a peculiarity:
Those who know me well know that I have an (unhealthy?) obsession with words. Especially seemingly simple but obscure ones; learning what they mean and how to use them and casually dropping them into conversation could at the very least be described as a hobby. So naturally I signed up to receive a word a day from Dictionary.com and a few weeks ago this doozy landed in my inbox. It’s such a simple, unpretentious word but has such profound connotations.
We live in a prescribed world today, and one that’s so fast-paced that I wonder how many stop to ask themselves pertinent questions;
“What is my purpose? What makes me come alive? What is at my core? What is my quiddity?”
For 7 years I have woken up between 6 and 8am, brushed my teeth and showered, got dressed, shuffled onto a train, shuffled off and sat at a desk for 8 to 12 hours, gone home, gone to sleep and then done it over again the next day. I have been perfectly content and comfortable living this way, but I can't remember ever being excited; like, genuinely hole-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach excited.
The more I think about it, I realize that I cannot be alone in this. This generation for a large part are children of parents who were deprived growing up; of comforts and of education and who are determined to ensure their offspring have the best possible life and career. That means prospects, that means security, routine. These things are noble, however it can be argued that we have struggled to reconcile with our identity as a result. We do the same things everyday as everyone else. It's both safe and sorry.
Recently, I've watched many of my peers break the mould. Leaving the "prudent" path behind and following their burning passions whether it be in the start-up space, non-profit sector or even just new terrain in different countries. This willingness to break out is admired by many of us but rarely emulated, which is a shame because I've watched these people come alive in a way that I've never seen them do before. They are discovering their truth.
In order to be authentic, you need to first know who you are, why you're here and what you stand for. You need to discover yourself, what makes you tick. what drives you, fuels your passion. We all have revolutions inside of us but before we can drive that we need to learn the essence of our being. We need to do what makes us come alive. We need to know our individual quiddity. What's yours?