Who are you outside of your work?Does the answer come quickly — amateur pickleball player, community choir leader, model train enthusiast?Or are you struggling to come up with something that feels as substantial as what you do for a living?If it's the latter, how about another question? How do you nurture your non-work self?When I asked Life Matters listeners that question, their responses were varied.One caller reflected on the different reactions he gets depending on whether he introduces himself as a gardener (his day job) or as a musician (his passion). Another said her professional identities as a high school teacher and touring musician felt at odds with each other.And one caller told me he hadn't realised how central work was to his identity until the pandemic hit, and things fell apart.As for me, I've realised that when faced with a simple — "how are you?" — my default response has been to answer based on how things are going at work.It seems our efforts to nurture our non-work selves could use some work.The centrality of work in our lives can't be denied, especially when Australians are working longer hours than ever before One would be, why did you choose to do the role, the job, that you do? Because the things that drew you to that work exist outside of the work," she says."And then the second is, what do you enjoy? When you're outside of the workplace, what do you do?"Whether it's watching your favourite TV show or playing sports, Ms Namwinga says thinking about the recurring themes and appeal of existing interests can help light the way to filling out your non-work identity."The process of finding yourself is that there's a journey — we're constantly curating who we are, and it's not really that there's an end product that we're trying to get to