Developing a healthy identity is essential to changing your life for the better. Who are you?  Who do you want to be in the world?  How do you see yourself?  How do you think others see you?  Exploring and changing how you view yourself and how you feel others see you is an extremely important factor. This can lead to real world change in behavior and give you the motivation to continue the strive to change your life for the better. To learn more about yourself, take the Briggs, Meyers, & Jung personality test, which is a short questionnaire that can give you insight into general components of your personality. The test uses general personality types and explains where you fall within them. Use your results to explore what feels true about you. This will help you with understanding some basic functioning of your personality, which can help you change your life for the better. Self awareness and understanding is the leaping off point in making positive change in your life. This test is freely available online. Using your changes journal, write down attributes about yourself that you admire. Are you kind?  Do you make people laugh?  Remembering that intelligence comes in many forms and not just book smarts or credentials, do you feel intelligent? Are you curious? Start with the positive aspects of who you are and use your journal to create a robust list of things you truly like about who you are.  Don't restrict yourself!  Write freely about anything large or small that you like about yourself.  Do you like your hair?  Your fingers? Do you like your voice or the way you speak?  Do you like your sense of style?  You are a whole human comprised of many parts that you perceive about yourself. Surprise yourself with how complex you really are and dig deep to reveal the many facets of yourself that you truly admire.  Creating positive change in your life means finding the person you really are and honoring that person. Now that you have a long list of the things you like, make a list of things about your personality that you want to develop. Remember, change and development is something you strive for and won't happen overnight. Just because you write about how you hate losing your temper in a journal does not mean you will wake up tomorrow without a temper.  Writing it down helps with self awareness. You can't change or develop what you aren't aware of.  Don't be too hard on yourself as you journal.  Avoid using black and white or extreme statements like, “I'm stupid” or “I never do anything right”.  Keep your focus on being a human who is not perfect and makes mistakes.  Try to think about personality traits, such as being less shy, having more control over your temper, being more organized, or becoming a better listener. Everyone is flawed, and part of the strive to make changes for a better life is looking at yourself and your personality as a work in progress. After you know what you want to change, set small, achievable goals that will help you change small parts of your personality.  Focus on one attribute at a time.  For example, tell yourself that you are going to use active listening in at least one conversation today.  Write about ways that you can actively listen in your everyday interactions and implement them.  At the end of the day,  journal about your experience and how well you did.  Where there times you were successful?  Where there events where you did not listen as well as you could?  Journal about how it feels to start changing facets of your personality. Start slow because you don't want to overwhelm yourself by trying to change all at once or expecting perfection. Stay positive that it will happen. The more proactive you feel about creating a more grounded, fulfilled self, the more motivated you will be to continue to change your life for the better. Take a moment everyday to be grateful for exactly as you are.  Part of changing your life for the better is getting to know yourself, embracing your strengths and flaws, and feeling comfortable in your skin.  Acceptance of yourself can help you feel confident about yourself, your life, and the changes you want to make. If you are having trouble changing the way you think about yourself, find someone who can be there for you emotionally. This may be a family member, a friend, or a coworker you trust. Educate yourself about ways to change negative thoughts about yourself. If you feel as though you could benefit from counseling, find a counselor that you feel comfortable with. If you feel overwhelmed by becoming more aware of yourself, your choices, and your emotions, you may want to seek out a therapist. Changing your life on a meaningful level is a challenging journey, and being strong also means knowing when you can benefit from guidance and help.

Summary:
Assess your self identity. Take the Briggs, Meyers, & Jung personality test. Focus on what you admire about yourself. Decide what you want to develop. Set small, achievable goals. Be grateful for who you are. Seek emotional support.