“Monday 5 Things” ….. Who …..
April 14, 2025 by D. Paul Graham
Wall Art in parking deck downtown Indianapolis. Artist unknown. Photo D. Paul Graham / imageGRAHAM, llc
The intro is punchy, tense, urgent, chaotic, and yet precise. Cymbals crash, followed by an unmistakable opening syncopated keyboard riff, fused by guitar and bass grooves, all strutting unapologetically into your auditory awareness. Then harmonized voices. Taunting, probing, and repetitive, daring you to answer. “Whoooooooo are you? Who, who, who, who?” Suddenly I’m not just head-bobbing to the music. I’m drawn into a full-blown existential state with my car stereo. The Who’s timeless classic is as defiant and loud today as it was in 1978. Some questions don’t have expiry dates and this morning’s M5T asks some “who” questions.
1. WHO ARE YOU? Not the version you perform for the room, not the one optimized for a social media profile, or a slick corporate pitch deck. Strip away the labels of entrepreneur, artist, parent, partner, leader, and mine for the raw material deep underneath. Who are you when you’re not achieving anything? When you have nothing to prove? Most of us spend so much time ‘doing’ that we forget, or perhaps neglect, ‘being’. Every decision you make flows from your identity. If you don’t know who you are, someone else will define it for you. When’s the last time you just sat in silence and asked, “what do I value? What do I love? What do I fear?” Your real answers live in those questions, and they shape everything in understanding “who are you?”
2. WHO DO YOU FOLLOW? Every day, consciously or not, we are following someone. A person, a brand, digital footprint, a voice, an ideal. Consider your choices. How you spend your time, the clothes you wear, the ideas you defend. They all point to influence in your life. Maybe you follow the loudest voice in the room. Perhaps you follow the ones with the nicest aesthetic. You might follow someone because they make you feel like you’re accepted, that you’re not behind. Following isn’t passive. You are aligning your direction with something or someone else. The question isn’t just ‘who do you follow?’ The deeper, more important question is ‘where are these influences taking you’? Who’s earning your attention? Who’s getting into your mind and shaping your ambition? Audit your inputs. Assess your outputs.
3. WHO DO YOU BELIEVE? We live in the age of polished delivery. Anyone with a microphone and a social media account can sound like an expert. But confidence and truth are not the same. Who do you believe, and why? Is it because they’ve earned your trust through integrity and consistency? Or because they validate what you already think? When was the last time you paused and fact-checked your assumptions? When did you ask yourself, Is this true? Or just comfortable? Trust is powerful and dangerous in the wrong hands. This week, think about the people, platforms, and stories you’re building your worldview around. Are they credible, or just convenient?
4. WHO ARE YOU BECOMING? Today’s habits are tomorrow’s character. Every little choice from the things you say yes to, the things you let slide, the way you treat people when nobody’s watching, all of those actions are shaping someone. Zoom out from yourself. Who is that person? We all have a vision in our heads of who we want to be; strong, grounded, creative, kind, free. But if your daily actions are taking you in another direction, it’s time for a course correction. You’re becoming someone whether you’re intentional about it or not. Ruminate on meeting the person you're on track to become in five years. Would you recognize that person? Would you respect that person? Would you be proud of that person?
5. WHO ARE YOU IGNORING? If we are honest with ourselves, we all tune people out. Sometimes it’s the critical voice we’re just tired of hearing. Sometimes it’s the quiet voice we’re afraid might be right. Sometimes it’s that voice from our gut telling us to do something that we are afraid to admit or act on. Often, the most uncomfortable voices are the ones we most need to hear. Maybe it’s the teammate with a different viewpoint. The mentor who told you something you weren’t ready to accept. The version of yourself you buried because it didn’t fit your current narrative. Whoever the voice, silence doesn’t make them disappear. It just puts the truth on pause. Who’s been speaking into your life that you’ve been quick to dismiss? Ask yourself why you’re resisting. The answer might be pointing you toward your next breakthrough.
Here's to a week of putting who you really are first, because if you know who you are, you’ll know what to do in any situation.
For over 13 years, D. Paul Graham has published “Monday 5 Things” ™, also known to readers as M5T™. He continues to use steering wheels as drum kits.
© 2025 D. Paul Graham
M5T is also on South Magazine Digital ..… Read it here …..
Subscribe to “Monday 5 Things” by clicking here: www.Monday5Things.com
You can reach Paul by email at dpg@imagegraham.com
“Monday 5 Things” ™ and M5T™ are trademarks of D. Paul Graham