When asked: “What is Your Identity“, people generally answer with a name or some family, religious or ethnic background. Some people don’t even have an answer and I must admit, I haven’t had an answer for this for many years. Could this be because I haven’t asked myself the question? My lifestyle is determined by my identity. It controls my mindset and governs my success. Why is this so? What is identity really?
” If you want to see your past, look at your current results. If you want to see you future, look at your current actions ” – old Chinese proverb.
Identity is the word you say after “I am”
Your actions are shaping your future. Likewise your identity is what you say it is. It’s what you tell yourself it is and it is what you tell others about yourself. Many people undermine their own identity by saying derogatory or dis-empowering things about themselves, such as:
- I am a procrastinator
- I can’t afford that
- I am always unlucky
- I can’t do that
- I am unsuccessful
- and so on.
Even worse, some people lower themselves to saying these things about others… but atleast that doesn’t shape your identity, unless you choose to accept their judgement or perception of YOUR identity.
Imagine the effect this has on your self esteem. It undermines the identity of the person verbalising it. The word you say after “I AM” is your identity. Your identity is what you are. And… your identity will shape your future. Do you want good things for your future or bad things? Saying empowering things about yourself (your identity) will shape you into having good results. The opposite applies to saying dis-empowering things. If other people say bad things about you, that’s not so bad. Only if you accept it. Your own words are the truth to you. They can and will have a lasing effect on your identity. Therefore we need to give our self esteem a boost. Be nice to yourself. Say good things!
An Empowered Identity
So why not Empower your Identity? Say good things. Do you know any super successful people that put themselves down? I don’t think so. They believe in themselves. They are in their current place of success because their identity is strong. It’s strong because they told themselves so, in the past. The things they tell themselves now is building their future and I bet it is an even more successful one.
So say empowering things to yourself. Say after me.
- I am an achiever
- I can afford that
- I am lucky
- I can do that
- I am succesful
Add a few if you like. The list goes on…
- I am helpful
- I am grateful
- I am loving
- I am…
You are in your current place because of your past actions. Your future is shaped by your current actions.
These are things I consider as a success communicator. For me to have success, I need to believe in myself. I say nice things about myself and it feels good. Try it!
Here’s to a strong positive identity and the good things that come with it.
Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
SeanRasmussen.com 2004 – 2007
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for the download of your e-book Mindset Mastery.
It is a very good interpretation of Think and Grow Rich and is easier to understand than the original.
Is it possible to buy this as an actual printed book?
I would love to have a printed version for my library as I’m currently learning to trade e-minis and the mind plays a large part in the learning process.
Regards
John Geary
Hi John. Thank you! Napoleon Hill was an innovator and is an inspiration. I have no doubt that great motivators like Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn etc are to a large degree influenced by Napoleon Hill. His work has been groundbreaking. You only have to look at “The Secret” teachers. Although they based their story on Wallace Wattles, Napoleon Hill has a big place in their teachings. Full credit to Wallace Wattles, still.
Ooooh Sean you are just good men thanks a lot now I know better things to say to myself I AM AN ACHIEVER, I AM SUCCESSFUL, I AM HELPFU, GRATEFUL; men i can’t count them all but i pray for more understanding. KINGSLEY.
You’re welcome, Kingsley. The happier you are, the happier I get
I don’t have any doubt that how we define ourselves is a powerful thing. The most common ‘identity’ question I tend to come across is ‘What do you do?’ This is possibly because it is a great icebreaker when meeting people.
Now this question can be interpreted many different ways, but most of the people I come across take this as an opportunity to explain their job. Fair enough in some respects, given that full time in the workforce takes up a fair chunk of a person’s waking hours. So to a certain extent even asking this question invites a response which will define an individual by their occupation.
A better question I heard one day was ‘What is your story?’ While a lot of people I have asked this question of start talking about their employment, some people give really interesting answers which can open up some incredible conversations. More importantly, it is an open ended question that invites the person to define themselves, rather than just listing their occupation.
Now whenever I get ask ‘what do you do?’ I prefer to give a more abstract answer than just saying where I work. If I were to describe my work to someone outside my profession, I’d say something like ‘I give people advice to help them avoid problems’. I also like list a whole bunch of things I do outside of work. I think that this makes for a more interesting response, plus it gives me greater scope to define who I am.
Tom McEwin´s last blog ..Getting Targeted Internet Traffic and a Hungry Crowd
Well done Tom. It’s great that you don’t try to categorise yourself and allow others to make preconcieved judgements about who you really are. I love the abstract responses. I also use the “what’s your story” opener when I meet new people. Open ended questions generate a far better opportunity to really get to know someone.
Hypnotists use this identity thing to create change. It is un-sanity to say I am (anything). It is a linguistic error. Hypnotists use linguistic errors to create confusion and out of confusion comes change. So yes, if we say I am (anything), make that anything positive because we are hypnotizing ourselves into believing we are that anything.
Wal Heinrich´s last blog ..Internet Marketing Why? How?