If you are an acorn, you can only become an oak tree.

One of my highlights this year was diving even deeper into Carl Jung’s work. One of Jung’s key concepts is individuation. It is the life-long process of becoming our own unique self, distinct from others.

What’s different and especially beautiful about the idea of individuation is that it is very different from the popular idea of “You can be anything you want to be.”

Although being anything we want to be is a positive idea on one level, it neglects the fact that we can REALLY only become something that already exists as a potential inside us.

If we were to talk poetically, if you start off as an acorn, you can only become an oak tree, not a redwood or a mango tree. If you are a tomato plant, you can’t grow roses and vice versa.

This sense of a unique pattern existing inside us and shaping who we can be at our very best is what individuation is all about. And what makes it so beautiful and unique.

We are limited by our potential, but we are also shaped by it.