"It's YOUR life. YOUR identity. YOUR choice."— James McPartland
If you want to change your behavior, you've got to start with your identity.
We are what we pay attention to. The world acts as a mirror - giving back to us not what we want, but who we project ourselves to be – by the story we have constructed about how life really is.
The process of refining our identity and creating the life we truly desire then, requires a heightened level of self-awareness and deliberate thinking. It's a discovery that will open us up to see that the truth of the story we tell ourselves stems from the scripts we write and carry about in our mind – and then brings to life through our actions (or inactions) to make our "external reality" conform to our story.
Our identity is deeply influenced by our core beliefs about who we are and how we perceive the world. We interpret experiences and situations in ways that align with and support our core beliefs. And these interpretations, in turn, reinforce how we see ourselves, guiding the actions we take or choose not to take.
All behavior is an "identity performance"; an act in which we work to keep a particular narrative going. We are walking, talking expressions of our deepest convictions. Recognizing that as we become what we think about, we come to find that we can only see as far as our self-talk will take us and only act as far as our self-talk will back us.
So identify the narratives that are stuck on replay. Start there, and rewrite the script where needed. To change your story is to change your identity – and thus your life.
Finally – if you ever find yourself in the wrong story, exit stage left! It's YOUR life. YOUR identity. YOUR choice.
Try that and follow me for more on this No Straight Lines series.
Mac 😎
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