Identity Beyond Brands and Status

“I am successful because I can. I can, because I am!” – How far you go in life depends on what you believe you can achieve, and what you believe you can achieve depends on who you see yourself to be. So ultimately, the question of the day is “who are you?” Or better phrased; “who do you think you are?”

You need to take some time to think about this as it is the cornerstone of everything and anything you do in life.?

This is why confidence appears to be the key to success. Also why the moniker; “fake it until you own it” is so popular these days, because it presents a quick fix to this complex existential (beyond just identity) crisis.?

But is there really a quick fix? The answer is of course – NO! Quick fixes have their uses; but what they never really do is truly fix the problem. Like a painkiller can soothe your pain, but to make it go away, you’ll need to find and cure the real problem – as the pain is merely an indication of a bigger issue.?

So what is the real fix then? Well, let’s go back to the beginning and read the first paragraph again.

“I’m successful because I can. I can, because I am!” – How far you go in life depends on what you believe you can achieve, and what you believe you can achieve depends on who you see yourself to be. So ultimately, the question of the day is “who are you?” Or better phrased; “who do you think you are?        

The solution is to take the time to answer this question; “WHO AM I?” Not who people say you are, or who your fancy degree says you are, or even who you pretend to be (we’ve all been there), but “Who do you think you are?”?

When you look at yourself in the mirror, who do you see? In those quiet moments when the hustle and bustle of the day is over and the world with it’s noise finally goes silent, who do you see? Those moments when you let yourself take off the mask you present to the world in order to survive it’s demands, who do you see?

It’ll be nice if a quick hack could fix this need for our identity (whatever it is) to be validated and wholeheartedly accepted, but it can’t. Quick fixes are the reason you see someone looking bright and thriving one moment and the next moment you hear of their suicide. THIS IS VERY REAL.?

• The need for increased mental health advocacy and awareness cannot be understated.?
• The need for us as individuals to stop?measuring ourselves by social or societal standards cannot be understated.?
• The need for us as individuals to have a real identity that we can ourselves accept before diving into the cesspool of fake existences crowding the world today cannot be understated.?
• The need to separate society’s acceptability standards from our acceptability of ourselves cannot be understated.?

Finally, the need for real human support groups of family and friends absolutely cannot be understated! We need to promote real human to human interactions beyond brands and statuses and what not.?

Our pursuit of success can be put on hold from time to time while we check how our neighbor is doing. I am personally guilty of not checking up on my loved ones enough, which is weird since I’m not even that genuinely pre-occupied. I realize it’s a bad habit I acquired somehow from all this fake busyness consuming us today. We have to break the cycle together!