The first part of life is establishing our identity and becoming a ‘safe pair of hands’ for adulthood. This first phase of life is, necessarily, egocentric. It is all about me. What am I about? What do I stand for? What are my gifts and talents, my strengths and capabilities? Does the world recognise my abilities? Perhaps there is some self-scrutiny to discern my faults and weaknesses, but that is only to ensure that I can hide them from the view and judgement of others. In this way, over the first part of a human lifetime, each of us identifies who we believe ourselves to be.
