How do you see yourself these days? If you’re like many whose old life is crumbling, either by choice or circumstance, the identity built upon those activities may be crumbling, too.
Activity is a way by which we establish our identity, usually by our choice of career or business. It’s not what we are inside, but it’s what we choose to reflect in our outer affairs and strive to attain.
As your old activities fade away, do you still see yourself in the old identity? If so, it’s possible you could be feeling pretty lost right about now, denied the chance to do what you used to do to show who you are.
If so, that’s okay. Because the loss of identity is like mourning a death of a loved one. For indeed it is, the death of the old us, the identity we’d grown to know and maybe even love (or at least grew comfortable with).
You may indeed find yourself caught in no-mans land, unable to go back or forward. Your “new life” hasn’t yet formed. And while you may be exploring your options, getting retraining, or simply sitting there waiting for something to come along, you aren’t yet engaged in that new activity yet, so your new identity cannot yet form around it.
If so, you probably feel much like a lost puppy waiting to be found. The turmoil and uncertainty defines you, but you have not embraced the identity nor excitement of a life in transition.
So what is one to do?
Perhaps you might see yourself already as someone who is doing what you want to do, engaging daily in activities that fill you with the joy of expressing what you and your life can be. But that might take some doing, especially while the bills and responsibilities of your old life keep reminding you of what you used to be.
I’m not suggesting a right or wrong way to work through this (though there are easy and hard ways to go about it). Just be aware that it is something all of us may have to face as we transition into the lives and world we want. And that process will set off a whole series of experiences as you move to a new identity and see yourself in a new way.
It also raises a whole set of questions we each much deal with as we move through the transition, some of which include:
- How will we go about the process of letting go of what we were and becoming what we want to be?
- What is the new identity we want to wear as we move forward through these uncertain times?
- is it one that truly suits the lives we want to create for ourselves, and the kind of world we want to live it in?
- How does it relate to the old you, and the life you now have?
- Does it really require a total break, or can you find a way to naturally transition from what you were into what you want to become?
While you’re working through the answers, perhaps you might also chew on this.
This whole series of events is occurring to teach you one basic truth — that you are the creator of your reality. But to create your reality, first you have to decide what your part in that reality will be, the identity you will wear within it, and the attributes you will reflect as you go about affairs.
It is a sobering thought. But the realization is one that will serve you well in awakening to your true place in the universe.
The responsibility to choose and develop that identity is yours and yours along. Don’t leave it to others to decide for you. And certainly don’t leave it to chance. Make sure the new identity you create is one you want to live with for a while.
But when you’re done, realize that it is only another identity, another suit of clothes you don to go about gathering the experiences of life.
It is not you, at least the you that remains at your core. That we’ll work to find another day.
In the meantime, let’s return to where we started today.
What is the identity you have now, and does it suit you to get where you want to go or what you want to do with this life?
