Imagine having a clear goal.
Knowing exactly what you want.
But an invisible force pulls you back
Into old habits, self-doubt, and procrastination.
It’s not just a lack of willpower.
It’s a conflict in your code.
A thread 🧵 on
Intentionally Designing Your Identity.
Advice becomes less useful the further it gets from the sense of what's right of the person receiving it.
That's why the same advice can change one person's life...
and damage your relationship with another.
"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
The future rarely unfolds according to the plan.
But the thinking required to create the plan prepares us for what comes next.
"You act like mortals in all that you fear,
and like immortals in all that you desire."
~ Seneca
We're most cautious where
caution costs us growth and
most reckless where
recklessness costs us time.
Reverse the relationship.
Treat time as scarce and
treat fear as the thing
that costs you most.
"The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself." ~ Rita Mae Brown
If your entire strategy is based on being digestible to others, you eventually become tasteless to yourself.
We inherited our definition of "Success" from our parents and peers.
We inherited our definition of "Hard Work" from the corporate world.
We inherited our "Anxiety" from the social media algorithms.
We didn't choose these. We just absorbed them.
The system issues an identity to all of us by default.
The question is… will you initiate the hard reset?
The reward for climbing a false summit is just a better view of the real mountain.
Staying in a role where you no longer recognize yourself is that false summit.
And the worst part is… everyone else thinks you are winning!
"All of humanity's problems
stem from man's inability
to sit quietly in a room alone."
~ Blaise Pascal
When the calendar is full,
the mind doesn't have to face the void.
But the void is the only place you meet yourself.