Identity is a strange thing. We have a picture of who we are in the world, or for many of us, who we think we ought to be. Yet often, it doesn’t translate into the vision of who we are as our best selves or who we would like to grow into.
More important than asking yourself what you want to do in this life, is asking yourself who you want to be. Changing the vision of your identity can radically change not only how you see yourself, but the actions you take each day, and how you show up.
When I reclaimed my identity as a creative, my world slowly started to change.
To start with, I wrote more. Well, in the beginning, I started to write, period. I hadn’t written anything other than powerpoint presentations, or marketing and strategy reports, for fifteen years, as I was buried in my corporate career.
But slowly, as the child writer I was decades before began to awaken within me, my identity as a writer also awakened.
Then I noticed other things changing. I began taking photographs. I painted. I changed out of my black clothes and started wearing colour. I got more creative with my business projects. I wrote a book. Then another. And another.
My identity as a creative blossomed into an identity as an entrepreneur, and then as a founder of not just one company, but a second, and then a third.
And on it goes, continuing to unfold in unforeseen ways that have changed my life. Brought endless colour into it. Brightened it. Opened me up to all the possibilities.
When you look at who you want to be, what do you see? What traits, values and characteristics do you aspire to? How would you behave right now if you already were that person, and what would you do next?
Step into the vision of your best future self. And know that you can be the you of your creation.
