Marcus Aurelius asked this question in his Meditations.  He went on to evaluate if he should prize breathing, thinking, impulses, moving with the herd, or eating. Saying no to each one as either a natural event or an unattractive trait. He questioned public praise, eventually comparing it to “a clacking of tongues” leading him to the following conclusion:

“So we throw out other people’s recognition. What is left for us to prize?

I think it’s this: to do (and not do) what we were designed for.”

This last sentence stunned me today. I’ve taken the tests. I can tell you my Meyers Briggs, my 5Voices, my DiSC style, even my Working Genius, and yet, I am still not willing to fully engage with how I am designed. It appears Marcus Aurelius struggled with the same thing, reminding himself to hold on to his own design and nothing else lest he become “afraid that people might come and take it all away from you.”

How many times have you allowed fear to stop you from being the best version of you? When you learn to respect your own mind, your own design or nature, to “prize it”, you will feel more satisfied with your own self and fulfilled at doing what it is that you were designed to do and to not do those things that are not in you to do.